
^-3 



Book 






TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



PACIFIC 

FISHERIES 
SOCIETY 




1914 



TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



PACIFIC 
FISHERIES SOCIETY 



AT ITS 



FIRST ANNUAL 
MEETING 



June 10, 11 and 12, 1914 

AT 

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 



SEATTLE, WASH. 

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 
1915. 






X 

1914-1915 

Elected at the First Annual Meeting in Seattle, Wash., for 
the ensuing year, including the meeting to be held at San Fran- 
cisco, Cal., in 1915: 

President Carl Westerfeld, San Francisco, Cal. 

Vice-President Henry O'Malley, Seattle, Wash. 

Vice-President Trevor Kincaid, Seattle, Wash. 

Secretary John N. Cobb, Seattle, Wash. 

Treasurer Russell Palmer, Seattle, Wash. 



Barton W. Evermann, San Francisco, Cal. ; C. McLean Fraser, 
Nanaimo, British Columbia ; Charles F. Holder, Pasadena, Cal. ; 
Leslie H. Darwin, Seattle, Wash. ; M. J. Kinney, Port- 
land, Ore. ; Ward T. Bovver, Seattle, Wash., and 
M. D. Baldwin, Kalispell, Montana. 



By transfer 
The White House, 



CONTENTS 



Business Sessions : 

Registered Attendance 10 

New Members 10 

Committees Appointed : 

Nomination of Officers 12 

Auditing Treasurer's Report 12 

Constitutional Amendment 12 

Election of Officers - 13 

Resolutions 14 

Time and Place of Next Meeting 15 

Papers and Discussions: 

Why the Pacific Fisheries Society was Organized. By Carl 

Westerfeld 19 

The Relations of the Federal Government with the Fishing In- 
dustry of the Pacific Coast. By Hugh M. Smith 23 

A Proposed School of Fisheries. By Trevor Kincaid 29 

Some Neglected Fishery Resources of the Pacific Coast. By 

John N. Cobb 39 

Angling and Netting; The Conservation of the Marine Fishes 

of Southern California. By Charles F. Holder 51 

Pacific Coast Biological Station, Departure Bay, B. C. By C. 

McLean Fraser 61 

Salmon Hybridization. By E. Victor Smith 71 

Safeguarding the Salmon. By L. M. Rice 79 

Improvements Necessary in the Hatching of Salmon. By S. 

Butts 81 

Rearing and Feeding Salmon Fry in California. By W. H. 

Shebley 85 

. Rearing and Feeding Salmon Fry in Oregon. By R. E. Clanton 91 

Feeding Salmon Fry. By M. J. Kinney 95 

List of Members of the Society 101 

Constitution 104 



PART I 

BUSINESS SESSIONS 



Transactions of the 
Pacific Fisheries Society 



On March 11, 1914, a meeting of persons interested in the 
upbuilding and perpetuating of the great fisheries of the Pacific 
slope was held in Seattle, Wash. Those present at the meeting 
were the following: Carl Westerfeld, member California Fish 
and Game Commission, San Francisco, Cal. ; E. Lester Jones, 
Deputy U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries, Washington, D. C. ; 
Henry O'Malley, Pacific Coast Superintendent of Hatcheries 
for U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Oregon City, Oregon ; Prof. 
Trevor Kincaid, head of the Department of Zoology, Univer- 
sity of Washington, Seattle, Wash. ; John N. Cobb, editor 
Pacific Fisherman, Seattle, Wash. ; Prof. E. Victor Smith, 
University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. ; E. E. Ainsworth, 
Seattle, Wash.; William J. Bothwell, Seattle, Wash.; L. H. 
Darwin, Washington Fish and Game Commissioner, Seattle, 
Wash. ; H. C. Fassett, Assistant Alaska Salmon Agent, Wash- 
ington, D. C. ; Miller Freeman, publisher Pacific Fisherman, 
Seattle, Wash., and Russell Palmer, manager Pacific Fisher- 
man, Seattle, Wash. M. G. Munly, Esq., Portland, Oregon; 
R. E. Clanton, Oregon Superintendent of Hatcheries, Port- 
land, Oregon ; M. J. Kinney, member Oregon Fish Commis- 
sion, Portland, Oregon, and Ward T. Bower, Pacific Coast 
Agent, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Seattle, Wash., authorized 
the use of their names in connection with the formation of the 
society. It was decided to form a temporary organization of 
a society to be known as the Pacific Fisheries Society, and to 
hold a meeting later in the year for the purpose of making the 
organization a permanent one. The following officers were 
elected : President, Carl Westerfeld, San Francisco, Cal. ; 
vice-president, Henry O'Malley, Oregon City, Ore. ; vice-presi- 
dent, Professor Trevor Kincaid, Seattle, Wash. ; secretary, 
John N. Cobb, Seattle, Wash., and treasurer, Russell Palmer, 
Seattle, Wash. 



10 Pacific Fisheries Society 

The first annual meeting- was held at University of Wash- 
ington, Seattle, Wash., Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 
June 10, 11 and 12, 1914. 

Wednesday, June 10, 1914. 

The meeting was called to order by the president, Mr. Carl 
Westerfeld, of San Francisco, Cal. The president then intro- 
duced Professor Edmond S. Meany, who on behalf of the 
University made an address of welcome in which he outlined 
the history of higher education in the United States. President 
Westerfeld responded briefly for the members. 

The secretary, Mr. John N. Cobb, read the minutes of the 
last meeting, which were approved as read. 
Registered Attendance. 

The president then ordered the roll-call of members to be 
taken. Ten members were registered for the meeting, as fol- 
lows : 

Carl Westerfeld, Henry O'Malley, Trevor Kincaid, John 
N. Cobb, E. Victor Smith, L. H. Darwin, Miller Freeman, 
Russell Palmer, Ward T. Bower and M. J. Kinney. 

The secretary then read the following list of applicants for 
membership, all of whom were elected : 

For Life Membership — Wm. G. Henshaw and Henry F. 
Fortmann. 

For Membership — 

E. A. Sims, B. W. Evermann, Ray B. Heacock, C. G. Conn, I. N. 
Hylen, T. J. Guaragnella, *J. P. Millett, H. L. Kelly, Jr., Theodore 
Opsvind, *Ira B. Ford, Robert Forbes, C. H. Buschmann, *T. J. Gorman, 
M. D. Baldwin, Henry Wilke, W. E. Persell, Emery L. Fletcher. Charles 
A. Kofoid, Fred. Patching, A. E. Culver, Thos. S. Manning. F. M. 
Newbert, James H. Gyger, George O. Laws, Alfred Greenebaum, Jeflf'n 
F. Aloser, Wm. B. Hobart, *W. K. Hancock, *C. McLean Fraser, Frank 
Berry, *Will A. Lowman, August Buschmann, Hugh C. Mitchell, Carl 
Spuhn, James T. Barron, Theodore Parsons, H. A. Schulz, ♦Waldo L. 
Schmitt, *John M. Crawford, A. E. Doney, Walter L Mansfield, *E. W. 
Hunt, Robert I. Duke, F. E. Booth. IVIartin C. Erismann, Philip J. 
Brady, Dennis Winn, *Edwin Wentworth, *Benjamin Baldridge, G. H. 
Lambson, Henry Dovle, W. W. Richards, William F. Thompson, *H. L. 
Osterud, J. J. Brenner, Dan Hurley, John Blass, L. P. Ouellett, J. B. 
Bowman, J. A. Morrow, J. H. Deer, W. M. Beach, *Hans B. Joyce, 
*L. M. Rice, Ernest Schaeffle, *A. H. Mahone, *Harry J. Henver, *Arch. 
T P Capell, *H. B. Duncanson, H. S. McGowan, Geo. C. Johnson, J. M. 
Peters, Frank M. Warren, O. C. Hanson, T. C. McHugh, *W. H. 
Sheblev, John F. Siebe, David Starr Jordan, Edward H. Hamlin, Charles 
F. Holder, N. B. Nidever, Stephen Butts, Charles W. Dorr, *J. R. 
Russell, *Henry Baldridge, H. B. VanDuzer, *Svdney E. Johnson, 
*H. P. A. Wold, H. F. Allen, J. H. Scott, D. R. Helser, Ingham, 



First Annual Meeting 11 

S. K. Taylor, R. D. Simmons, Chas. Brenner, Thos. O'Neill, *J. E. 
Parsons, *Clarence L. Anderson, *L. E. Mayhall, John H. Gardner, 
*C. P. Henkel, *John Leuenberger, *Wm. H. McFarland, *Alexandcr P. 
Romine, John D. McGowan, William Shultz, Jack Young, *Edward 
Cunningham, *Lyle Greenwood. 



Note. — Those designated by an asterisk were present at the meeting. 
On motion of Mr. John N. Cobb, which was seconded, Dr. 
Hugh M. Smith, U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries, of Wash- 
ington, D. C., who was present, was elected an Honorary 
Member of the Society. 

President : The United States Bureau of Fisheries has 
very kindly placed at our disposal the steamer Albatross. The 
Albatross will make a trip on the Sound this afternoon, leaving 
Lillico's float at the foot of Spring street at 2 :00 o'clock, and 
all the members of the Society and their friends are invited to 
be present on this cruise. The naturalist on board, Mr, 
Schmitt, is going to demonstrate some of the apparatus, and I 
am sure it will be a most interesting trip, and we will be glad to 
have you with us. 

The Society then adjourned for the day. 

The afternoon was spent aboard the U. S. Fisheries Steamer 
Albatross, which made a short cruise in Puget Sound, during 
the course of which Mr. Waldo L. Schmitt, the naturalist, 
demonstrated the interesting scientific apparatus aboard, and 
the members and their friends also had an opportunity of wit- 
nessing a haul with the beam trawl, which brought up a number 
of interesting specimens. 

Thursday, June 11, 1914. 

The greater part of the morning session was devoted to 
the reading and discussion of two papers. Dr. Hugh M. 
Smith, "The Relations of the Federal Government with the 
Fishing Industry of the Pacific Coast." Trevor Kincaid, "A 
Proposed School of Fisheries." 

Upon motion of Mr. Miller Freeman, the secretary was 
directed to prepare a resolution expressing the sentiments of 
this Society with respect to the providing of proper funds for 
the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, particularly with respect to the 
work on the Pacific Coast, and to forward a copy of the resolu- 
tion to the delegation of the Pacific States in Congress. 



12 Pacific Fisheries Society 

Mr. W. A. Lowman, president of the Puget Sound Salmon 
Canners Association, in the name of the association invited the 
members of the Society to a dinner at the Arctic Club at 6 -.30 
this evening, which invitation was accepted with the thanks 
of the Society. 

It was moved, seconded and carried that the secretary, as- 
sisted by Professor Kincaid, be authorized to prepare a resolu- 
tion for presentation to-morrow, not only sanctioning the estab- 
lishment of a Fishery School, but urging the announcement of 
the immediate establishment of such an institution in the Uni- 
versity of Washington. 

The president appointed the following committees : Nomi- 
nating Committee — Messrs. Miller Freeman, M. J. Kinney, 
Ward T. Bower, W. H. Shebley and E. Victor Smith. Audit- 
ing- Committee — Messrs. Henry O'Malley, E. W. Hunt and 
Waldo L. Schmitt. 

Mr. John N. Cobb offered the following amendment to 

Article HI of the Constitution, the article as amended to read 

as follows : 

ARTICLE III.— Officers. 

The officers of this Society shall be a president and a vice-president, 
who shall be ineligible for election to the same office until a year after 
the expiration of their term ; a vice-president, a secretary, a treasurer, 
and an executive committee of seven, which, with the officers before 
named, shall form a council and transact such business as may be neces- 
sary when the Society is not in session — four to constitute a quorum. 

The amendment was adopted. 

In the afternoon the members visited the White River State 
Flatchery, near Auburn. In the evening- the dinner given the 
Society by the Puget Sound Salmon Canners Association was 
thoroughly enjoyed by all present. After the dinner a number 
of impromptu addresses were made by members and others 
present. 

Friday, June 12, 1914. 
Report of Nominating Committee. 

Mr. Miller Freeman : The Nominating Committee rec- 
ommends the election for the ensuing year of the officers who 
have filled the respective positions during the time since the 
preliminary organization was formed in March, as follov/s: 

President, Carl Westerfeld; vice-president, Henry O'Mal- 



First Annual Meeting 13 

ley ; vice-president, Trevor Kincaid ; secretary, John N. Cobb, 
and treasurer, Russell Palmer. 

Moved, seconded and carried that the above be elected as 
the officers of the Society for the coming- year. 

The committee recommended that the following be elected 
as an Executive Committee : 

Barton W. Evermann, of San Francisco, Cal. ; C. McLean 
Eraser, Nanaimo, British Columbia; Charles F. Holder, Pasa- 
dena, California ; Leslie H. Darwin, Seattle, Wash. ; M. J. 
Kinney, Portland, Oregon ; Ward T. Bower, Seattle, Wash., 
and M. D. Baldwin, Kalispell, Montana. 

Moved, seconded and carried that the Executive Committee 
as named be elected. 

A telegram from Governor Ernest Lister, of Washington, 
and a letter from E. Lester Jones, U. S. Deputy Commissioner 
of Fisheries, Washington, D. C, regretting their inability to be 
present, were read by the secretary. 

Prof. Trevor Kincaid: I would like to move that the 

secretary be authorized to send the following telegram to the 

president of the American Fisheries Society, conveying the 

greetings of this Society : 

Prof. Henry B. Ward, President American Fisheries Society, Urbana, 
Illinois : 
The Pacific Fisheries Society in its First Annual Session sends greet- 
ings to its sister society. (Signed) John N. Cobb, Secretary. 

Motion seconded and carried. 

The following telegram was received from Prof. Ward in 

reply : 

Urbana, III., June 13, 1914. 
John N. Cobb, Secretary, Pacific Fisheries Society, Seattle, Wn. : 

American Fisheries Society congratulates its new sister on her splen- 
did outlook for the future. (Signed) Henry B. Ward, President. 

Mr. E. W. Hunt : I move that this Society extend a vote 
of thanks to Dr. Hugh M. Smith for attending the first meet- 
ing of this Society and giving us the benefit of his experience 
and knowledge. Motion seconded and carried. 

Mr. Miller Freeman : I move that a vote of thanks be 
prepared in proper form and sent by mail to the proper author- 
ities, thanking the University faculty for courtesies extended 
to us during this session. Motion second and carried. 



14 Pacific Fisheries Society 

The following papers were read and discussed : John N. 
Cobb, ''Some Neglected Fishery Resources of the Pacific 
Coast" ; Dr. Charles F. Holder, "Angling- and Netting and the 
Conservation of the Marine Fishes of Southern California." 
The latter paper was read by Mr. Osterud in the absence of the 
author. C. McLean Fraser, "The Nanaimo Marine Biological 
Laboratory." 

Friday Afternoon, June 12, 1914. 

The secretary offered the following resolution which he had 
been ordered to prepare at a previous session : 

Whereas, it is noticed in the daily press that the Appropriations 
Committee of the National House of Representatives has failed to in- 
clude in the Sundry Civil Bill adequate provision for the carrying on of 
the arduous and important duties with respect to the fisheries of the 
Pacific Coast laid by federal law upon the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries ; 
and, 

Whereas, the products of the commercial fisheries of the Pacific 
Coast sell for an aggregate sum of nearly $50,000,000, there is invested in 
vessels, boats, packing establishments, etc., over $40,000,000, while over 
35,000 persons are employed in all branches of the industry ; and, 

Whereas, the present equipment of the Bureau for carrymg on this 
important work is totally inadequate for the proper performance of it. 
One small steamer alone is available for guarding the 25,000 miles of 
coast line in Alaska, when at least eight additional vessels, with the nec- 
essary agents, crews, etc., should be provided. More salmon hatcheries 
should also be built, not alone in Alaska, but also in the States of Ore- 
gon, Washington, and California. There is no marine biological labora- 
tory available anywhere on the coast for working out the many problems 
which beset our fishermen, and such is urgently needed. Therefore, be it, 

Resolved, That it is the sense of the Pacific Fisheries Society that 
our Senators in Congress be most earnestly requested to exert them- 
selves to the utmost in securing from that body, at this session, the nec- 
essary funds required by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries for conserving 
and perpetuating the great commercial fisheries of the Pacific Coast. 

Moved, seconded and carried that it be adopted as read. 

The secretary read the following resolution regarding the 
establishment of a Fishery School at the University of Wash- 
ington, and upon motion it was adopted: 

Whereas, it is understood by the Pacific Fisheries Society that the 
University of Washington has in contemplation the establishment of a 
Department of Fisheries in connection with the College of Science in 
said institution ; and. 

Whereas, the Society is convinced that the plan is a wise and timely 
measure, designed to foster the varied interests of the fishing industries 
of the Northwest ; therefore, be it 

Resolved, That the Pacific Fisheries Society heartily endorses the 
plan of establishing such a department and urges upon the authorities of 
the University the carrying out of this project with the least possible 
delay, and furthermore, the Society pledges itself to aid and support 
such department by every means within its power in case it is brought 
into existence. 



First Annual Meeting 15 

Prof. E. Victor Smith read a paper on "Salmon Hybridiza- 
tion," which was discussed by the members. 

TIME AND PLACE OF MEETING. 

After some discussion as to the place and time for holding 
the next meeting it was decided to hold the meeting in San 
Francisco, the date to be fixed by the Council. 

The following papers were read and discussed : L. M. Rice, 
"The Artificial Propagation of Salmon" ; S. Butts, "Improve- 
ments Necessary in the Hatching of Salmon" ; W. H. Shebley, 
"Feeding and Rearing of Salmon Fry in California" ; R. E. 
Clanton, "Rearing and Feeding Salmon Fry in Oregon" ; M. J. 
Kinney, "Feeding Salmon Fry." 

President: I am now going to ask Mr. O'Malley to pre- 
side, as I find it growing so late that I have to be going; but 
before I go I want to thank all the members for their courtesy 
shown me here and for the assistance they have rendered in 
making this meeting a great success. I hope that all of you 
will be able to attend the meeting next year, because I think 
we can do much good if we proceed along the lines we have 
mapped out for this Society. I will now say good-bye, and 
Mr. O'Malley, will you preside? 

The Society adjourned after the discussion on the above 
papers. 



PART II 

PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS 



WHY THE PACIFIC FISHERIES SOCIETY WAS ORGANIZED 

By Carl Westerfeld 
Member California Fish a)id Game Commission 

Some months ago the rapid development and growth of 
the fisheries on the Pacific Coast led a few who were inter- 
ested to meet in Seattle and organize the Pacific Fisheries 
Society. It was their object to bring about the co-operation of 
all those who are interested in fisheries. The American Fish- 
eries Society has accomplished much, but it has so vast a terri- 
tory to cover that it was thought an organization established 
on the Pacific Coast could better take care of our local interests. 

Heretofore, each state has been pursuing its own course 
without much reference to what was being done in neighbor- 
ing states, and with little more reference to what had been 
done by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. The result has been 
that we have not always had that concerted and perfectly har- 
monious action which we should have ; the state and county and 
local fisheries departments have each been working in their 
own way without any co-operation ; no organization has existed 
on the Pacific Coast which has held meetings at which the 
heads of fisheries departments and fish culturists could fore- 
gather to discuss questions of vital interest to fisheries, and 
exchange ideas and make plans for the betterment of the ex- 
isting conditions of fisheries and obtain the help and co-opera- 
tion of the persons interested. 

There are in the waters of the West Coast of America, as 
far as known 

1. More than 400 species of fish, 

2. Several hundred species of crustaceans. 

3. Several hundred species of mollusks. 

4. Many species of marine algae. 

Of the fishes, more than 200 species are already known to 
possess considerable food value, but v,re have not utilized more 
than 20 to 25 species to any extent, and only 15 to 18 exten- 
sively. Of the crustaceans and mollusks, only a few species 



20 Pacific Fisheries Society 

are utilized, although mauy more possess food value. Of the 
many species of marine algae, scarcely any use is made, al- 
though in Japan they constitute a very important article of 
food. 

The resources of our waters are as yet utilized only in 
very small part. It should be the purpose of this society to 
promote the development and proper utilization of the fishery 
resources of the Pacific Coast. 

The ocean fisheries present a field of practically unlimited 
development. Obviously, the development of the ocean fish- 
eries cannot be started until we know from past research, or 
such research as may be provided for, just what the location, 
extent, nature and possibilities of the various productive areas 
and species may be. 

To bring about the more adequate and proper utilization 
of the natural food, animals and plants that teem in the waters 
of our coast and in our fresh water streams and lakes, co- 
operation is necessary among the people interested. 

1. The commercial fishermen. 

2. The companies, great and small, engaged in putting up 
and handling fishery products. 

3. The wdiolesale and retail dealers in fresh fish, oysters, 
clams and crabs. 

4. The fish culturists and members of the State and Fed- 
eral fish commissions. 

5. The anglers or those who go a-fishing for the joy and 
pleasure it brings. 

6. The naturalists who are studying the problems of species, 
life histories and geographic distribution. 

Proper development of the fisheries, proper utilization of 
the products of the fisheries, the education of the public, the 
creation of a demand for fisherv products, the proper and ade- 
quate protection of the fisheries through intelligent fish cul- 
tural work and the enactment of proper laws and regulations 
can be brought about only through action and intelligent co- 
operation on the part of the various classes of persons and 
interests named above. 

Each must be willing to listen to the other and make use 
of the information and knowledge he is able to impart. 



First Annual Mcctiiii:; 21 

Many, if not most, of the failures in this world could be 
avoided if we would listen to and profit by the experiences of 
others who are working in our, or related, lines. 

Taking up the classes seriatim : 

1. The methods of the commercial fishermen are, as a rule, 
crude and very destructive to the fisheries. They are pro- 
vincial in character. An exchange of ideas among the com- 
mercial fishermen themselves, and conferences with the natural- 
ists, the fisli companies, the dealers in fresh fish and the fishery 
officials and fish culturists would help the commercial fisher- 
men immensely. 

2. The fishery companies take too little interest in the fish- 
ermen and their methods. 

3. The handlers of fresh fish, as a class, pa}- little attention 
to the manner of displaying the fish in their stalls. They 
seem not to know that many, very many, wouUl-be purchasers 
are turned away every day by the unattractive appearance of 
the fish offered for sale. 

4. Fish culturists sometimes fail of the success they should 
attain and the State and Federal fish commissions fail to 
attain the success that should be theirs because they do not 
keep in touch with the students of fish and fishery problems 
on the one hand and the commercial fishery interests on the 
other. 

5. The anglers' viewpoint is unique, and, in most part, can 
be greatly improved by an association and an exchange of 
ideas with the naturalists, fish culturists and commercial fish- 
ermen. 

6. That naturalists, as a rule, have not been sufficiently 
concerned with the practical phases of the fishery problems. 
They have not always taken the trouble to put the results of 
their study and investigation before the fishermen, the fish 
cidlurists and the fishery officials. 

All of this goes to show the necessity for co-operation 
among these various classes of people. 

It is practically certain that the industrial development of 
the next generation on the Pacific Coast will mean the de- 
struction of the most important fresh water fisheries if the 
establishment and maintenance of factories and other indus- 



22 Pacific Fisheries Society 

trial plants on our streams and the appropriation of water from 
the streams for irrigation and water-power is not wisely and 
energetically controlled by the Federal and State governments. 

The waters of our bays and streams are being polluted 
and the streams dammed and drained. In many instances 
water is so valuable for farming purposes that none is left 
for fish. Proper fishways and screens should be installed, 
but a rigid enforcement of the laws is frequently difficult to 
obtain because district attorneys and other prosecuting officers 
are often loath to offend large corporations for fear, as they 
say, of driving capital and industries out of their counties. 
In order that an enforcement of the law may be obtained, it is 
necessary that the people themselves be educated to the full 
realization of the importance and value of the fisheries. No 
law, however wise or beneficial to the public, can be properly 
enforced unless backed by public opinion and a favorable public 
opinion must be created by educating the people. 

There must be a unity of assault upon objectionable prac- 
tices, a unity of action in educating the people by giving the 
widest publicity to matters pertaining to the fisheries, and 
there must be a co-operation of all persons interested. There 
is no better or easier place to promote this co-operation than 
in the meetings of such a society as this. 

These are among the reasons why the society was organ- 
ized, and they are among the reasons why it should thrive. 
If it can bring about the co-operation indicated, it will prove 
of the greatest benefit to the fisheries of this coast. 



THE RELATIONS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WITH 
THE FISHING INDUSTRY OF THE PACIFIC COAST 

By Hugh M. Smith 
United States Commissioner of Fisheries 

From time to time, in the past few years, there has been 
a demand for a formal enunciation of poHcy on the part of 
the Federal Government with regard to its fishery activities 
on the Pacific Coast. While the Federal Government, as rep- 
resented by the Bureau of Fisheries, has no different policies 
for different parts of the country, there are conditions on the 
Pacific Coast which do not exist elsewhere ; and it is quite 
natural and proper that the exceedingly large and diversified 
fishing interests of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska 
should want to know just what they may depend on or expect 
from the Federal Government in the way of aid, counsel, co- 
operation, and exercise of administrative authority. 

I have recently taken this matter up with the Secretary of 
Commerce, who has a very lively interest therein, and have 
secured his concurrence in and approval of the statement of 
official policy which will now be outlined. 

As to Artificial Propagation of Food Fishes: — This is the 
most effective form of aid which can be afforded to the fishing 
industry by the Federal Government. It will be extended in 
all fields as fast as circumstances or facilities will permit, and 
will be along the most modern lines, including the rearing of 
young salmon to the fingerling stage. 

In Alaska, the artificial propagation of salmon by private 
interests should not be further sanctioned as a reason for tax 
exemption. This does not imply any criticism, of private salmon 
culture per se, but of the system which, at this time, has few 
defenders and many opponents. The culture of salmon and 
all other fishes in public waters in Alaska should be under 
government direction and at government expense. The hatch- 
eries now maintained by the salmon canners should be fairly 
appraised and taken over by the government. 



24 Pacific Fisheries Society 

As to the Planting of Non-Native Fishes: — Closely related 
to artificial propagation, and of great importance to the fishing 
industry, is the introduction into Pacific waters of non-indigen- 
ous fishes, from other parts of America or from abroad, which 
may be beneficial, but may, on the other hand, be decidedly 
injurious. 

For years the Bureau of Fisheries has been discouraging 
or resisting — not always successfully — the attempts of anglers 
and others to have the government make plants of well-known 
predaceous game fishes of the east into waters already contain- 
ing salmon and trout, or communicating with such waters. 
Everyone here must appreciate the great harm that can come 
from such introductions in streams that are the spawning 
grounds of salmon, through the destruction of their eggs and 
young. 

The policy has been adopted of referring all such applica- 
tions to the state fishery authorities ; and I may say that there 
seems to be entire accord between the states and the govern- 
ment in this matter. 

I should like to see this policy endorsed by a strong reso- 
lution of this society and by formal action of the state fishery 
officers ; and I am almost ready to advocate legislative action 
that will prohibit the planting of pike, black bass, pike perch, 
catfish, etc., in the Pacific states. The Bureau of Fisheries in 
this, as in other cases, is nothing more than the agent or serv- 
ant of the states. We hope that you will insist on a course 
that obviates our becoming parties to any act that, in its in- 
fluence on the local fishing industry, may be worse than a 
crime ; that is, a blunder. 

As to Regulation of the Fisheries: — In the sections where 
the bureau has control over the fisheries, its authority will be 
exercised primarily with a view to the maintenance of the fish 
supply and the permanence of the industry. Regulative mea- 
sures will be framed after due investigation, and will represent 
the minimum requirements of the various species. In other 
words, there will be the greatest freedom of fishery consistent 
with the preservation of the supply in the interest of all con- 
cerned. 

As to Technical Aid to the Fishing Industry: — It is be- 



First Annual Meeting 25 

lieved that a legitimate and important field for governmental 
aid to the fishing industry is systematic work in behalf of the 
fisherman such as is done at agricultural experiment stations 
in aid of the farmer. For this purpose, the bureau has recom- 
mended the establishment on the Pacific Coast of a fishery 
experiment station, to be fully equipped with expert personnel 
and apparatus for (1) demonstrating the economic value of 
neglected aquatic products and the best means of preparing 
them for market, (2) improving the methods of preparing and 
handling fishery products, (3) experimenting with new fishing 
appliances or methods, (4) devising the best means of treating 
fishing- twine and nets so as to prolong their existence, and 
(5) in general conducting practical experiments, tests, etc., 
for the benefit of the fisheries and dependent industries, and 
also in the interest of artificial propagation. Such a station, 
as well as any other instrumentality of the bureau, should 
undertake any special experiments, investigations, or inquiries 
requested by the fishing interests when the results will have 
public value or application. 

As to Promotion of Fishery Trade: — The Department of 
Commerce, through the Bureau of Fisheries and other agen- 
cies, will institute special inquiries, by duly qualified assist- 
ants, regarding foreign markets, for the purpose of extending 
the trade in fishery products, particularly canned salmon and 
other similar products. 

In the belief that federal inspection of fish-packing plants, 
and federal certification as to the quality of products and the 
agreement of product and label, will promote the industry, 
and especially the export trade, the bureau is willing to ask 
authority to undertake this duty, provided it is desired by a 
majority of the fish packers, and provided, further, that such 
service cannot be more appropriately performed by another 
branch of the government. 

As to Fishery Investigation: — The important and much- 
needed work of surveying the off-shore fishing grounds and 
making known their resources, especially in the remoter parts 
of Alaska, will be continued as actively as the facilities and 
funds available will permit, and will be made a regular feature 
of the bureau's operations. It is the intention to keep the 



26 Pacific Fisheries Society 

steamer "Albatross" regularly employed on this kind of work. 

As to Pacific Coast Headquarters: — In order to keep in 
close touch with fishing interests and to be of the greatest 
possible direct assistance to the fishing industry, the bureau 
has established permanent branch headquarters in Seattle, and 
will keep in charge a properly qualified assistant. This office 
will be made a repository of reports, charts, and data pertain- 
ing to the fisheries of the Pacific Coast ; and will be maintained 
solely with a view to its usefulness to the local fisheries. The 
success of the venture will depend largely on the fishing inter- 
ests themselves, whom we expect to make their needs known 
and see that they obtain what they want. 

As to Increasing the Facilities for Proper Performance of 
Duties Imposed by Lazu: — It is felt that the existing facilities 
for making the inspections and enforcing the fishery laws and 
regulations in Alaska are entirely inadequate, and are even 
such as to bring the department into disrepute. Congress 
has been asked to provide increased personnel and vessels, and 
there will be an annual appeal to Congress until the service is 
properly equipped for carrying out its functions. 

DISCUSSION 

President : I think we are all glad that we have had the pleasure 
of hearing Dr. Smith tell us about the activities of the United States 
Bureau of Fisheries, and it seems to me that each and every one of us 
ought to get in and work as hard as we can in order to help out in the 
matter of obtaining appropriations for the carrying on of this important 
work. It is particularly important to the northwestern part of the 
United States, and to Alaska. In order to carry on this work effectively 
the Bureau of Fisheries must have money and we must keep this matter 
continuously before the people until we finally force Congress to give 
an appropriation that is adequate to carry on the work that is absolutely 
necessary. I know from personal experience in California that we are 
always a little bit short of money, and from what I learn from the 
Bureau of Fisheries, they have the same complaint to make, only pos- 
sibly to a more marked degree than we have, and it is the duty of this 
society, and the duty of each one of us, among other things, to keep 
before the people the question of getting Congress to furnish the ap- 
propriation that should be given to the United States Bureau of Fish- 
eries. Now, if any one has any suggestions to offer in discussion we 
would be glad to hear them. 

Mr. Freeman: This matter of the providing of sufficient funds for 
the United States Bureau of Fisheries to carry on its operations is 
absolutely necessary. We know, particularly on the Pacific Coast, the 
great need of adding to the services of the Government. For many 
years the request has been made — and the feeling has grown stronger — 
that we have to have these services. We know that the fisheries re- 
sources are wonderfully important ; we realize the necessity of their 



First Annual Meeting 27 

development, and, what is of even more importance, their conservation. 
It must be on some systematic plan. There is only one authority by 
which it can be properly done, and that is through the Federal Govern- 
ment, which, equipped with the machinery, talent, experience and all 
that it has, is best fitted to carry on these operations, and the reason 
why up to this time these operations have been so limited is solely be- 
cause of the lack of support by Congress. The reason for that lack of 
support is that the fisheries are generally out of sight of the majority 
of the people, in which they differ from the farming interests and the 
commercial interests, and it is impossible to arouse a sufficient amount 
of interest among the members of Congress to get them to take an active 
part in urging the providing of necesary funds. I want to urge, there- 
fore, the adoption of a resolution, in fact I move that the Secretary be 
empowered and authorized to draft a proper resolution for presentation 
before the close of this session which will cover this matter, expressing 
the sentiments of this body with respect to the providing of proper funds 
for the Bureau of Fisheries, particularly with relation to the Pacific 
Coast, and forwarding a copy of the resolution to the delegations of 
the Pacific States in Congress. 

President : Are there any other remarks that anyone wishes to 
make at this time with regard to the paper that has been read here? 

Mr. Kinney: I do not think that there is any leading industry of 
the United States that is as much neglected as the fishing industry — 
that is, so far as general support goes. It is a very large industry. I 
want to make some comparisons. Our county, at the mouth of the 
Columbia River, is a fishing county. Our industries are salmon and 
lumber. Now, we have been working to get appropriations for main- 
taining hatcheries. I should like to see a county appropriation main- 
taining a county hatchery at Astoria or elsewhere on the river within 
the county limits. I am not a politician, but I have taken that matter 
up several times, with the result that I found it was much easier to get 
an appropriation of $400,000 for county roads than it was to get $10,- 
000 for fisheries, much easier, and yet the fishing industry is our main 
industry, the one upon which we place our main dependence. I have 
taken up with our senators and representatives during the last ten years 
the matter of larger appropriations for hatcheries. As many as ten 
years ago I took this question up, and I have seen every one of our 
senators and representatives from time to time. I am not a politician, 
but I have urged this upon them. Senator Bourne probably was the first 
one to get a bill for the Columbia River through the Senate, but it 
never got through the House, and was laid on the table. The third bill 
is now in the House. It seems to me that the appropriations for Federal 
hatcheries ought to be doubled ; they ought not to be increased a little, 
but they ought to be doubled. It is of vital importance to the prosperity 
of the United States that these fisheries should be taken care of. Meat is 
getting scarcer and higher, and as our population increases, we shall 
find a time when the fish will actually support the majority of the 
American people. On the Columbia River today we do not pack more 
than one-half what we did thirty-five years ago. We should take this 
into consideration and protect all other streams to the utmost. 

President : It seems to me that the best way to accomplish these 
things is to give all these matters the utmost publicity. I find that peo- 
ple refuse to give these appropriations for matters of this kind largely 
because they are ignorant of the importance of them, and when the peo- 
ple are educated up to the importance of our fisheries I think that they 
will be generous in their appropriations. I think that some scheme by 
which these matters can be brought before the people, and the people 



28 Pacific Fisheries Society 

educated up to the importance of them, would be work to which this 
society could well devote a part of its time. We would like to hear 
from anyone here who has suggestions to make. We want the matter 
fully discussed. The more discussions we have, the more viewpomts, the 
more ideas we get. 

Probably Mr. Fraser could give us some idea how they manage those 
things in British Columbia, I understand they usually get good appro- 
priations there. 

Mr. Fraser : It seems to me that this discussion is a little bit out of 
my line. While I am very much interested in it I really have no say in 
the outcome. I do not know that we are very much better off in Canada 
in regard to appropriations than you are in the United States. It seems 
to be the same way with governments all over. There is not very much 
difference in the way things are arranged all the way through as far as 
that is concerned. The Canadian hatcheries, in British Columbia at 
least, are not more numerous or any better financed, so far as I am 
aware, than they are in Washington, Oregon or the other Pacific States. 
There are but ten federal hatcheries in the Province of British Colum- 
bia. These are principally for the hatching of salmon, although there 
is something done with the various trouts, viz., steelhead, cutthroat and 
rainbow. The work in general is so much similar to that done here that 
I cannot add anything that would be of special interest. 



A PROPOSED SCHOOL OF FISHERIES 

By Trevor Kincaid 

Professor of Zoology, University of Washington 

For some time the proposition of establishing- a school or 
department of fisheries in connection with the University of 
Washington has been before the authorities of the latter insti- 
tution. This is by no means a new idea, as the suggestion has 
been mooted for a number of years. The recent centralization 
of the fishing industry of the northwest in Seattle, together 
with the location of the Pacific Coast office of the United States 
Bureau of Fisheries in this city, has brought the project to the 
front in a manner that merits careful consideration. 

The University of Washington, located as it is on Puget 
Sound, in the midst of one of the greatest fishing districts of 
the world, occupies a strategic position which suggests the 
possibility of close co-operation through its scientific depart- 
ments with the various industrial activities resulting from the 
expansion of the fisheries. The advantages to be derived from 
the establishment of such a school are rather obvious and it 
seems to be merely a question as to whether the time is now 
ripe for the initiation of the project. 

We have observed on the Pacific Coast, and the same may 
be said of other sections of the country, an enormous expan- 
sion of the fishing industry. The harvest of the sea grows 
apace as new sources of aquatic wealth are opened up for the 
benefit of mankind. With this expansion comes an increased 
complexity in every phase of the industry. The older methods 
of fishing have given place to new ones of the most advanced 
type, while in the preparation of marine products for the mar- 
ket a revolution has been worked through the invention of 
labor-saving machinery and the perfection of sanitary pro- 
cesses. On the commercial side the markets of the world, 
both domestic and foreign, have been opened up to receive 
great supplies of cheap and nutritious sea food. 

The expansion and dififerentiation of the industry has gone 
forward along so many lines that the time has arrived when 



30 Pacific Fisheries Society 

hig-hly trained men are called for to handle various phases of 
the work. On the biolog-ical side the fisheries have become 
more and more complex, because of the establishment of 
fishing- along such diverse lines and over such a wide field of 
operations that we have been brought face to face with an 
increasing variety of biological problems which demand solu- 
tion in order that the supply of sea life may be not only main- 
tained but vastly increased. On the technological side we note 
the extraordinary development of the canning industry. The 
evolution of labor-saving machinery has been marvelous. It 
is a far cry from the sun-dried fish of the Indian to the super- 
man of the "iron chink." And this has gbne hand in hand 
with the development of sanitary processes which make the 
earlier methods appear barbarous by comparison. The meth- 
ods of fishing have undergone a corresponding increase in 
complexity, from the time when the Indians gathered in their 
simple way the products of the sea to the present day with its 
fleet of vessels plowing the waters of the Pacific, from Cali- 
fornia to the Arctic seas. That the methods of taking and 
transporting fish will undergo still further changes goes with- 
out saying, and this is particularly true of the deep-sea fish- 
eries, whicii are as yet only in their infancy. In the commer- 
cial field we see the same thing. From the handling of the 
catch of the individual fisherman in the local market we have 
seen the industry expand so as to become a large factor in the 
commerce of the nation, and more recently we have noted the 
fisheries products of the Pacific Coast flowing into the mar- 
kets of the world and thus attain international importance. 
If we examine the industries based upon the utilization 
of our aquatic resources it becomes obvious that a veritable 
army is involved in carrying on the several phases of sea farm- 
ing-. The demand for trained and efficient men is already 
pressing and will increase with the expansion of the industries 
concerned. The manner in which this demand is being met 
presents an interesting subject for study. The men engaged 
in the fishing end of the work are largely recruited from for- 
eign fishing fields where they have served their apprentice- 
ship, or else are drawn from the ranks of other industries and 
trained on the ground. Those dealing with the preparation 



First Annual Meeting 31 

of marine products for the market are for the most part men 
who have s^^rown up with the industry and have acquired their 
qualifications through direct contact with the work in can- 
neries, etc. The business men manning- the plants have been 
drafted from other industries. The scientists engaged in the 
study of marine resources are largely those employed by the 
United States Bureau of Fisheries, which has done noteworthy 
service in this connection, both through the labors of its im- 
mediate stafif and through the employment of men drawn from 
the universities of the Pacific Coast and elsewhere. The fish 
hatcheries are manned by pisciculturists who have served their 
apprenticeship in the national Bureau of Fisheries or in the 
stations established by the several states. 

It will be seen that the industry is manned in all its 
branches by men trained largely through the apprenticement 
method. This type of education has its great advantages, and 
any system of training that would deprive a man of the bene- 
fits that come from immediate contact with the processes of 
the industry would be a serious blunder, and any school we 
may establish must necessarily try to preserve those advantages 
that spring from this vitally important system and add to 
them those elements of fundamental training that are so essen- 
tial to complete preparation. In other words, our aim should 
be to found a school that would bear the relation to the fishing 
industry that is borne in their way by the schools of forestry 
and mining to the basic activities which they represent, and 
by the agricultural experiment station to industries based upon 
the products of the soil. 

Granting, then, the wisdom of founding a school of fish- 
eries upon the basis suggested, the question arises as to the 
details of organization. What would be the nature of the 
curriculum best suited to accomplish the object in view? A 
canvass of the situation discloses the fact that no fisheries 
school exists at the present time upon the American conti- 
nent and, moreover, the institutions of Europe do not present 
any example approaching the type we have in mind. 

So far as we are aware, the only fully equipped school of 
fisheries in existence is the Imperial Fisheries Institute of 
Japan. The importance of the fisheries of the Japanese Em- 



32 Pacific Fisheries Society 

pire may be judged from the fact that at least one-sixth of 
her entire population is engaged in industries based either 
directly or indirectly upon marine resources, a condition fur- 
ther emphasized when it is known that the country does not 
possess the basis for an extensive production of animal life 
on land. 

When the Japanese government found itself confronted 
by the problem which presents itself to us today, it sent its 
agents abroad to study the methods of foreign countries in 
order that they might place the fisheries of the empire upon a 
modern basis, but we are informed they found no institution 
in existence which would serve as a model, and they were 
compelled to formulate an organization that was of an almost 
original type. 

The Imperial Fisheries Institute was founded by the Jap- 
anese government in 1897, and has proven of inestimable ser- 
vice to the Japanese people. The staff consists of a director 
and nine instructors. The plant is located in Tokyo and 
fronts directly on the sea. Several ships are at the command 
of the station and enable the institution to keep in touch with 
all branches of the fisheries. The instructional work of the 
institute is of a very practical character and may well serve 
as a model upon which the curriculum of our own school may 
be based. The general plan of the Japanese courses, as out- 
lined in their most recent catalogue, is therefore epitomized 
for purposes of comparison. 

Two fundamental divisions of the work of the institute are 
recognized — research and instruction. One branch of the 
school is thus devoted to educational work, preparing men to 
enter actively into the dififerent branches of the fishing indus- 
try. In this connection, three lines of preparation are repre- 
sented, viz., a fishing course, a technological course, and a 
piscicultural course. From the fishing courses men enter upon 
the work of taking fish. They have a knowledge of navigation 
and are thus able to secure positions as masters of vessels. 
They are also taught sufficient mechanics to enable them to 
operate machinery. From the technological course men enter 
canneries and plants engaged in the preparation of products 
to be used as food or to be utilized in other industries. They 



First Annual Meeting 33 

are given a practical knowledge of chemistry and bacteriology. 
From the piscicultural course the graduates enter upon the 
work of caring for hatcheries and other plants designed to 
conserve and increase the supply of marine products. In all 
cases the period of instruction covers three years, one of 
which must be spent in actual work in some phase of the in- 
dustry under conditions over which the institute has more or 
less control. 

Candidates entering the school are called upon for certain 
fundamental educational preparation, corresponding to the 
completion of a high school course. Some idea of the cur- 
riculum may be had from a list of the subjects taught during 
the first two years. In the fishing course we find fishery 
methods, navigation, seamanship, shipbuilding, embryology, 
oceanography, ichthyology, applied mechanics, mathematics, 
economics, English, fish curing. In the technology course the 
items are preparation of marine products, bacteriology, ap- 
plied mechanics, applied chemistry, chemical analysis, zoology, 
ichthyology, botany, economics, law. For students in pisci- 
culture the following requirements are laid down : Fresh- 
water pisciculture, salt-water pisciculture, embryology, bac- 
teriology, oceanography, chemistry, zoology, ichthyology, bot- 
any, algology, economics, drawing. 

In addition to the above, short courses are offered to men 
already engaged in the industry who have not had the advan- 
tages of special training. A post-graduate course is also pro- 
vided for the benefit of those desiring more extended pre- 
paration along special lines. Again, a special course in deep- 
sea fishing is offered which trains men in the technique of this 
important line of work which is in a state of rapid expansion 
in Japan as with us. 

As to the scope of the institution, we get some idea from 
the number of students enrolled. Since 1897, when the work 
was initiated, over 600 students have been graduated, and in 
1909, which is the most recent catalogue at hand, there were 
enrolled in the various courses 263 students. 

So much for the educational side of the institution. On the 
experimental or research side, which is co-ordinate, they have 
men working who are attempting to solve biological and tech- 



34 Pacific Fisheries Society 

nological problems relative to the fishing industry. The results 
of their investigations are published as bulletins for the benefit 
of those concerned. At the time the last bulletin was pub- 
lished they had under way experimental work dealing with 
the spawning of fishes, fish migrations, rearing of oysters, 
hydro-biology, food preservation, chemistry of sea-products, 
and the use of dyes in preserving nets. 

In establishing a school such as has been suggested in the 
above outline, we will naturally encounter certain difficulties. 
One difficulty is, of course, that this school is something abso- 
lutely new so far as this country is concerned, and anything 
that is new will have to overcome more or less inertia in getting 
under way. Other difficulties will suggest themselves, such 
as the proper manning of the new department and the stretch- 
ing of the finances of the University of Washington to cover 
the expenditures involved. Some of these difficulties are not 
so serious as would at first appear. Many of the fundamental 
courses in biology, chemistry and technology called for in the 
fisheries curriculum are already given in the university, so it 
would be necessary to provide only that additional instruction 
which is of a distinctively professional character. 

The manner in which the new department, if it be organ- 
ized, will be co-ordinated with other progressive movements 
is quite sug'gestive. The United States Bureau of Fisheries 
has in mint! the establishment of a laboratory on the Pacific 
Coast similar to those already in operation on the Atlantic, 
which would be a most useful adjunct to the fisheries depart- 
ment. The state has established a permanent office in Seattle, 
which would be very helpful along some lines. All about us 
we have plants dealing with marine products which could be 
utilized as object lessons in giving instruction. 

With the proper backing and with the co-operation of the 
various national, state, corporate and private interests con- 
cerned, a school of fisheries would undoubtedly prove of the 
greatest benefit to all concerned, and the authorities of the 
University of Washington have planned to move in the matter 
as rapidly as the means at hand will permit. 



First Annual Meeting 35 

DISCUSSION 

President: The very able and exhaustive paper that has just been 
presented by Professor Kincaid has opened up a number of subjects for 
discussion, and I think we might with great profit devote a Httle time to 
taking up some of the subjects if anybody here has anything to offer. I 
think particularly we might be very glad to hear from somebody con- 
nected with the practical side of fishing. 

Prof. Kincaid: I would like to hear from Dr. Smith on that; he has 
a wide field there, and I am sure all would be interested in hearing him. 

Dr. Smith : I think that we are under many obligations to Professor 
Kincaid for his exceedingly comprehensive remarks, which seem to cover 
the field adequately. I had the pleasure in 1903 of visiting this Japanese 
Fisheries Institute to which Professor Kincaid has referred, and I can 
tell you it was an eye-opener. I went out there to lecture on fisheries 
work as carried on in this country by the federal government, and it 
very soon became apparent to me that there was nothing whatever we 
could tell the Japanese. They had already gotten all that was worth 
while in this country and were making use of it. They have a truly 
wonderful institution there, which is turning out a large number of 
graduates who immediately enter the field of practical work, and help 
themselves and their government. 

In our own particular field we have a chronic need of trained men, 
especially in the fish-culture branch, who are willing to enter at compar- 
atively small pay, with the assurance that they will ultimately receive 
more adequate compensation if they qualify themselves. I think such a 
school as Professor Kincaid contemplates for Seattle would turn out 
graduates who, under an arrangement with the United States Civil Ser- 
vice Commission, could be put directly into the fish culture work of the 
federal and state governments without examination, upon presentation 
of a diploma from the University of Washington. This would certainly 
be all that the Bureau of Fisheries would require. There is a wide field; 
I do not know of any more promising field in the government service 
than in the culture of fish. The possibilities of making new discoveries, 
especially in the line of intensive breeding and selective breeding, are 
almost inexhaustible. I would expect that a tremendous boon to the 
fish industry of the entire country would be given by a fisheries school 
such as this if established here. 

President : Mr. Lowman, couldn't you contribute a few remarks on 
this subject from the standpoint of the man actually engaged in the 
commercial end of it? 

Mr. Lowman : Mr. President, it seems to me that if a man speaks 
of any vocation it invariably starts a discussion and brings out state- 
ments that seem in each case to be diametrically opposed to each other. 
The whole thing boiled down is, how many empty stomachs can you re- 
lieve, how often can you do it, and how long can you keep it up? That 
is the gist of the whole thing. It is a question of food for the people 
of the world, and the fisheries are going to be drawn on more and more. 
Therefore it brings up the matter of whether or not there is over-fish- 
ing. If so, you must remember that you must put up with this and a 
whole lot more over-fishing. That is the point you have got to take care 
of in the future, and it is the point, the real point of the whole matter. 
You are today fishing very, very limited to what you will have to fish in 
the future, or contrive a method of curtailing the growth of the popula- 
tion. But the question of over-fishing is, I think, a very simple propo- 
sition. On the Sound here there is a serious question as to whether or 



36 PaciHc Fisheries Society 

not there has not been over-fishing even under present conditions and 
present methods. Over-fishing means that you have fished out all of 
your surplus and a portion of your breeding stock. If you have done 
that, what percentage of it did you do by nets and fishing boats as 
against the paper mills which discharge poisons continuously three 
hundred and sixty-five days out of the year and twenty-four hours a 
day; what proportion was done by nets as compared with the carload of 
cedar bark and fir sawdust which now covers the spawning fields? It 
is an actual fact that those streams which are the least developed in a 
commercial way are still the best producers of salmon. It is not so 
much of a real question as to fish returning to parent stream, or whether 
they move from stream to stream, as it is how many pounds of net food 
you can get out of a given quantity of fish and deliver to the consumer 
at a price he can afford to pay and eat it as a common everyday food, 
and while I agree most heartily, could not agree more fully, with Pro- 
fessor Kincaid, I think that the biology and other ologies should get 
down very largely to, as he said, the preparation of fish and the delivery 
of it to the consumer. Let the practical end of it at least keep pace with 
the scientific end ; let the two go hand in hand. Our hard headed, prac- 
tical experience, with your scientific investigations, will continue to pro- 
duce a supply of breeding stock and at the same time produce food for 
somebody else if he will put up the ten cents. 

Our experience is, or at least the idea comes into our minds, t-hat 
there has been slightly too much of the scientific and not enough of the 
practical. Maybe we are producing a great deal, but we shall have to 
produce more and more and not less. 

Mr. Schmitt: The establishment of a school of this sort (speak- 
ing of the school of fisheries) is a thing that is needed by you practical 
men and by the scientific men. Men of science need certain special 
training to take positions with the Bureau of Fisheries. One problem 
which frequently confronts the Bureau is that of securing properly 
qualified men. It has been the habit of the Bureau to train its own men, 
but that takes time and it is difficult to get others to take their places 
when they leave for other fields of endeavor. 

Regarding the relation of scientific studies to practical results ; un- 
less we have scientific researches in biology, physics and chemistry, we 
cannot get the relations of the fishes to each other and their environ- 
ment ; unless we know how much oxygen tlie fish needs, and how much 
there is in the water ; unless we know the toxidity of various chemical 
solutions and sawdust infusions we cannot pass upon the effects, on your 
decreasing river fisheries, of the poisons from the paper mills, saw 
mills, and other sources. These things are of undoubted importance, 
and unless we have scientific studies and the proper training therefor 
we cannot investigate these problems and give you the information you 
are looking for. 

It is for reasons such as these that we need so much a school of this 
kind in this country, where most of the fishing is done at the present 
time. Although the east coast has a great many fishing industries, I find 
the western products, especially halibut, arc superseding the eastern in 
the eastern markets, and for that reason, among others, I am heartily in 
favor of anything that will tend toward the establishment of a fisheries 
school on the northwest coast. 

President: We have had a discussion on the subject of the estab- 
lishment of a school of fisheries and we have heard from Professor Kin- 
caid on behalf of the scientists and the University, and from Mr. Low- 
man on behalf of the canners and the practical men. There are a num- 



First Annual Meeting 37 

ber of hatchery men here, and I think some one of them should favor us 
with a few remarks concerning the establishment of such a school. One 
of the principal courses would be the propagation of fish, and some of 
the hatchery men ought to be able to favor us with a few remarks on 
that subject. I do not want anyone to feel at all backward about getting 
up and speaking, because this meeting is not so terribly formal. 

Mr. O'Malley: Mr. President, I talked this subject over with Pro- 
fessor Kincaid last fall when we were out on Puget Sound liberating 
lobsters. I have long felt the need of just such a school. I have had lots 
of practical experience in the field, but I would like to have some of the 
scientific training that would naturally come from a school of that char- 
acter. A lot of assistance for the practical work done by me has come 
from my association with Dr. Gilbert. He has spent a good many sum- 
mers on the Puget Sound and Columbia River, and I have been closely 
associated with him. In checking up my practical knowledge with his 
scientific knowledge, I feel that we have both helped the other, and I feel 
that a school of this character, with men coming out into the practical 
field with trained knowledge, would be of great help. There are many 
questions of fish culture now before the people of this coast that are of 
vital importance, and one that is being worked out by Mr. Rich, em- 
ployed by the Bureau of Fisheries and under the supervision of Dr. 
Gilbert, is the question as to the time that young salmon proceed to the 
ocean and what percentage of those that go early and those thai go late 
return in the larger numbers as matured fish. Dr. Gilbert has reached 
the point with his scale study on salmon whereby such facts can be 
determined. This will give the hatchery man the information which is 
most vital to the industry, viz., the proper time to liberate his fish with 
the view of the greatest possible number returning as adults. 

Mr. Bower : Mr. President, may I offer a suggestion ? We all agree 
as to the need of a fisheries school. Now, it occurs to me there is 
further need of definite, concrete action as to how we can accomplish 
the end. It seems to me that a plan ought to be formulated whereby 
the legislature may be approached properly to provide the necessary 
funds. It seems to me that it is a question of dollars and cents, and if 
the matter can be worked out to that end, I think the school will be 
realized. I trust the Society can do something towards that end. 

President : I think the point is very well taken. After all mere 
talking does not get you very far. It is the money that counts, and if 
we simply got together here and did nothing more than talk we would 
not have accomplished much. Some steps ought to be taken in order 
to keep this going after we adjourn, and for that purpose I think it 
might be well to pass a resolution endorsing the scheme of establishing 
a fisheries school, and then afterwards in some appropriate way appoint 
a committee or get the executive committee to push the idea along. We 
ought to give Professor Kincaid our active support in accomplishing the 
end which he is so desirous to attain. Now, if there are no further 
discussions at the present time, I think a motion will be in order to 
have somebody — our Secretary, or the Executive Committee — prepare 
a resolution endorsing the plan of establishing a fisheries school, and 
have it presented and acted upon at our subsequent meeting. 

Mr. Freeman : I make such a motion, and suggest that it be so 
worded that the request be made for the immediate establishment or the 
immediate announcement of the establishment of a school of fisheries 
here. Really the way to go at anything is to simply go at it. The need 
is evident, the field is wide open. Already we have shown that the con- 
ference between Dr. Smith and President Landes seems to be exceed- 



38 Pacific Fisheries Society 

ingly desirable from a national standpoint, and such an institution would 
establish additional prestige and would attract students not only from 
this country but from foreign countries. I beg to offer then that the 
Secretary be authorized to prepare such a resolution for presentation 
tomorrow, not only sanctioning the establishment, but urging the an- 
nouncement of the immediate establishment of such an institution in the 
University of Washington. 

President : I would suggest that while all these onerous duties are 
being placed upon the Secretary, that Mr. Freeman and Professor Kin- 
caid and others interested in this — of course we are all interested, but 
Professor Kincaid has looked into it probably more than any of us — and 
I suggest that he assist the Secretary in drawing the resolution in order 
to get it on the books right. 



SOME NEGLECTED FISHERY RESOURCES OF THE 
PACIFIC COAST 

By John N. Cobb 
Editor of the Pacific Fisherman 

The Pacific Coast has been so bountifully gifted with salm- 
on that it has from the very beginning- been difficult to de- 
velop a market for other varieties of sea food, but as the con- 
sumption of fishery products throughout the country at large 
increases, and methods of distribution improve, the people are 
indicating a desire for a greater variety from which to choose, 
and this will ultimately furnish an outlet for the many species 
which are now either neglected entirely or but sparingly used. 
As it has been impossible to treat of all in the compass of a 
paper of this class, I have selected the most prominent. 

The black cod (Anoplopoma fimbria) is very abundant in 
our northern waters, and large quantities are taken on halibut 
trawls when set in deep water. The black cod is a most de- 
licious food fish, of firm and flaky texture ; it is white in color 
and rich in flavor. While the market for this species is steadily 
widening, the supply which could be brought in far exceeds 
the demand. 

Owing to its oiliness, it is not easy to pickle-cure this fish. 
The best method has been found to be that of double pickling. 
After being in pickle once the fish are taken out and put in 
fresh pickle a second time from two to five days. The second 
pickle is then boiled and the fish are replaced in that fluid after 
it has cooled, and are then shipped to market. 

The eulachon, or candlefish, run in enormous schools in 
some of our Alaska streams from late in March till in May, 
but, although a most digestible and nutritious species, very 
few are eaten by the whites. These are almost invariably 
pickled. It is not good for canning, as the flesh drops from 
the bones after cooking, and when the can is opened the con- 
tents present a much jumbled and uninviting appearance. The 
fksh of the eulachon is said to be as restorative to the wasted 
human system as cod-liver oil. 



40 Pacific Fisheries Society 

The oil, which is abundant in the tissues of the fish, has 
very superior quahties and might be made commercially im- 
portant if the proper methods were followed in its extraction 
and refining. 

Of the large schools of herring which frec[ucnt our coast, 
relatively but very few are prepared for market, and these 
usually in a slipshod manner. Were the fresh fish selected 
with care and an eye to having all the fish in a barrel of about 
the same size, the fish gibbed and then salted carefully, and 
after the fish have been cured sufficiently repacked in barrels 
which are filled so full that the fish cannot be jumbled up, the 
finished product would fetch prices more nearly consonant 
with the best foreign herring. I put up some on the Shumagin 
Islands in 1912 and 1913 which averaged almost one pound 
each in the round and ran about 225 to the cured barrel, and 
these brought alnu>st the same i)rice as the Norwegian herring 
in the California market. 

Several attempts have been made on Puget Sound to build 
up an industry in the canning as sardines of the young herring 
and a pilchard which frequents these waters, but all have 
failed through inability to compete with the cheap and abund- 
ant labor available for the Maine canneries. 

In Alaska are to be found enormous numbers of Dolly 
Varden trout, and lesser numbers of rainbow, cutthroat and 
Great Lakes trout. The Dolly \'arden trout are the deadliest 
enemies the salmon have in Alaskan waters, as they devour 
both the eggs and the young. Owing to their being classed 
in the states as game fish, it is almost impossible to find a 
market for them in a fresh or frozen condition. At present 
the State of Washington, thanks to the broad-mindedness of 
Commissioner Darwin, permits of their sale in the local mar- 
kets. A few hundred cases are canned annually in Alaska, 
and these are prepared in the same manner as salmon. If 
medium sized fish were selected and packed whole in one and 
two-pound oval cans, they would present a more inviting ap- 
pearance, and I believe a big trade in them could be built up 
throughout the country, as a trout label would be a novelty 
in the East, and also one to conjure with, as the name stands 
for a choice article in the minds of the people. 



First Annual Meeting 41 

It is a question of only a few years when the shad fisheries 
of the Pacific Coast will be of first-rate importance. At the 
present time it is so over-shadowed by its giant brother, the 
salmon fishery, that it is almost lost sight of. The fish are 
taken mainly on the Columbia and Sacramento rivers. Most 
of them are marketed in a fresh or frozen condition, while 
some thousands of cases of both fish and roe arc canned each 
season. The demand for shad is slowly but steadily increasing. 

Whitefish (Coregonus) are found in many of the inland 
lakes and streams of the Northwest and in Alaska. Some 
commercial use is being made of them in Washington, where 
they are seined in the lakes and shipped to Chicago and to 
nearby western states. In Alaska practically no use has yet 
been made of them except as food by the natives who catch 
them. They are a delicious fish and will compare very favor- 
ably in edible qualities with the Great Lakes whitefish. 

Atka mackerel {Pleurogrammus mono pt cry gins) is found 
in large schools mainly along the Aleutian chain. The codfish 
vessels find schools frequently when fishing around the Shum- 
agin Islands. The fish is rather hard to cure properly, but 
when the work has been well done it is delicious in flavor. In 
the early days of the Nome rush, when the steamers made 
regular stops at Dutch Harbor for coal, a small business was 
maintained by the natives of Unalaska in selling pickled Atka 
mackerel to them, but when the vessels ceased making it a 
port of call the business died out. If the name were changed 
and a strong efifort made to exploit this species, I believe a 
good business could be built up. It would be necessary to 
change the common name because the fish is not a mackerel at 
all and bears no resemblance to one, it having acquired the 
name because of a fancied resemblance in flavor to the other 
species. Either of its other common names — "striped fish" or 
"yellow fish" — would be appropriate. 

The cultus cod (Opiodon elongatus), several species of 
sea bass, known locally as red rock cod (Sebastodes ruherri- 
mus), Sitka black bass (Sebastodes melanops), etc., various 
species of flounders, including the deep-sea sole, are excellent 
food fishes and are to be found in abundance along our north- 
ern coast and in Alaska. Most of them now find a limited 



42 Pacifu- I'islh'iii's Society 

market in the coast towns, but cvontually tlicy will bo shipped 
to all sections of the West, as their food ciualities become 
better known. 

The mi^st remarkable instance of wholesale waste of fishery 
products is to be seen in connection with the great salmon in- 
dustry of this ct>ast. In 1^)13 some 140 millions of salmon 
were used in a fresh condition, and in canning, pickling, niild- 
cm-ing. freezing, smoking, etc. Estimating the loss in dress- 
ing these salmon at 25 per cent, a most conservative estimate, 
gives us the enormous total of 101,lS(i tinis of otTal. With the 
exception of about 7,000 tons, which were used at a few small 
plants, all of this enormous tiHal was thrown back into the 
water, thus noi only wasting valuable material but polluting 
the water from which the fish originally came. For various 
reasons, uo{ all of this material coidtl be savetl, but the amount 
that couUl be worked up into merchantable proilucts would sur- 
prise most of my hearers. 

Included in this enormous amount o{ ofTal are millions of 
pt^uuils c^f salmon eggs. Although Siberia prepared 250 tons 
of salmon eggs as caviar in U>13, only about 24,000 poiuids 
were prepared upon the Tacific Coast of America during the 
same period. It is a comparatively easy matter to prepare 
caviar, an^l with a little experience almost any fairly intelli- 
gent persiMi can i.\o it, and it is to be hoped that some of our 
fishermen will turn their earnest attention to this matter. 

The balance of the offal would make excellent fertilizer and 
oil. A few unthinking persons have blamed the cannerymen 
for not having done this years ago, but they must be acquitted 
of most of the blame. For once American inventive genius 
has laggetl behind. In the luist, where the preparation of fish 
scrap and oil from non-edible species is an old and important 
industry, large plants have been established for the rendering 
of the tish. On this coast, where non-edible species are rare, 
fish otTal has been the usual source of supply, and as the pack- 
ing establisments are generally scattered widely, large plants 
could not be utilized owing to the heavy expense of bringing 
the otTal such liMig distances. As a result a small plant, ca- 
llable of handling the refuse of a plant packing from 50,000 to 
100,000 cases, was needed, and this has not been available at a 



first Annual Meeting 43 

reasonal)le cost until within the last two years, but as most of 
the ventures in this line in the past have been failures, the can- 
nerymen are cliary of investin^^ until they see such a plant work- 
ing successfully ui)on this material alone. 

Mussels. — Dr. Smith has told us in a recent circular issued 
by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries that we ought to eat the sea 
mussel. I am happy to inform him that in a limited way this 
bivalve has for some years been marketed at vari(ms ])laces on 
this coast, but there is room for an immense increase in its con- 
sumption. Large beds arc frequent along this coast from San 
Francisco north, especially in Alaska. H. E. Westbrook has 
recently started to can them at his plant on Smith River, in 
northern California, and if the j)roduct takes well with the con- 
suming public others will undoubtedly take it up. Canning 
mussels would be a good business for the salmon canneries to 
take up when the salmon are not running. 

Mussels are also valuable for the productif)n of fertilizer, 
the so-called "mussel mud" constituting one of the best fer- 
tilizers known. It is found in places where the mussel beds are 
exposed to constantly depositing silt, which slowly destroys the 
mollusks and buries them beneath their ofifsi)ring. 

Clams. — Clams are abundant throughout Alaska ; I have 
personally found them in nearly every section outside of the 
Arctic and it is credibly reported that there are large beds along 
the Arctic coast. The razor clam (Machaera patula), is especi- 
ally abundant in southeast and central Alaska. The mufl clam 
(probably Panopca s^enerosa) is to be found in the same re- 
gions. Almost no use is made of them at i)resent, but some day 
they will ])rove a source of wealth to the Territory. The work 
of canning could easily be carried on at plants erected adjacent 
to the grounds. 

Cockles. — Beds of cockles, sometimes called scallops in 
Alaska, are known to exist in Funter P.ay, on Admirality Is- 
land, and in Dry Strait, near Wrangell, in southeast Alaska, 
and would probably be found in many other places if systematic 
search were made. They are eaten, but not sold. 

Crabs. — Crabs are exceedingly abundant in Alaska, and for 
many years the residents have been catching and eating them. 
In 1909 the business of catching and shipj)ing them to Pugct 



44 Pacific Fisheries Society 

Sound was first undertaken. In the beginning- all were shipped 
alive, packed in seaweed, but so mau)^ died on the way or ar- 
rived in bad condition that tinally all were boiled before being 
shipped. They were shipped during- the smumer months when 
a close season on Washington crabs prevailed. Owing- to cer- 
tain peculiar conditions prevailing on the Sound in 1913, none 
were shipped from Alaska. 

Owing- to the cheapness and abumlance of the canned crabs 
imported from Japan, the business of canning theiu has lan- 
guished on this coast, but as the crabs are said to be decreasing 
in Japanese waters it may be that eventually our packers will 
be able to do some business in this line. 

Shrimps and Praivns. — These crustaceans are in quite gen- 
eral use in the coast states, but their pursuit has been neglected 
in Alaska. 

Shrimp are found in a number of places in Southeast Alas- 
ka, being fairly abundant at times in the vicinity of Wrangell, 
while the investigations of the Albatross have shown that they 
are abundant in the waters of central Alaska, south of the 
Alaska Peninsula. Last summer, during the month of July, I 
found large numbers in the stomachs of codfish delivered by 
the fishermen at Pirate Cove, on Popof Island, in the Shuma- 
gin Islands. They have been reported from a few places in 
western Alaska. As the discovery of the presence of shrimp 
in Alaska has been what we might term accidental, it is prob- 
able that other, and even more prolific, grounds would be found 
if sought for specifically. 

Prawns have been found in southeast Alaska, in the vicinity 
of \\'rangcll. Some prospecting was done in 1909 and a few 
of these crustaceans, known to the fishermen of Puget Sound 
as "big-spots" (which average 5 inches in length), "coon- 
stripes," (2 inches in length), and "pinks" (1 to 11-2 inches in 
length) were gathered. As this was the first and only eflfort, 
so far as my knowledge extends, ever made to find these crus- 
taceans in Alaskan waters, it is my belief that more extended 
search would disclose them in abundance in other sections 
of the Territory. 

IJltale Meat. — In Japan whale meat is of considerable eco- 
noiuic importance as a food product, the tail and adjacent parts 



First Annual Meeting 45 

and the soft piece under the eye being the choicest portions. It 
has much the flavor and appearance of beef. There are several 
whaHng stations in operation on this coast, nearly all of which 
ship the portions mentioned to Japan. Could the prejudice 
against the whale meat be overcome it would prove a most im- 
portant addition to our national larder. 

Hair Seals. — Many thousands of hair seals frequent this 
coast, especially in Alaska, and if properly hunted I believe the 
industry could be made a profitable one, as the hides make ex- 
cellent leather. A considerable reduction in the numbers of 
these animals would greatly benefit the salmon industry, as 
they annually destroy millions of these valuable fish. 

Sea Urehin. — The sea urchin, which is quite abundant on 
our coast, will some day be an article of economic importance. 
A few are gathered and the meat eaten by Japanese in Califor- 
nia and by natives in Alaska. 

Sea Cucumber. — The Holothurian, known commonly as the 
sea cucumber, is a very abundant animal on this coast, but no 
use is made of it as yet. In the South Seas immense quantities 
are prepared for market by boiling and smoking, the resulting 
product being known as beche-de-mer. It is highly prized by 
orientals, who prepare a most delicious gelatinous soup from it. 

Algae. — Despite the fact that the seaweed resources of this 
coast are not surpassed by those of any other, they are practi- 
cally ignored. A number of the native tribes gather, prepare 
and eat considerable quantities of seaweed, while small quanti- 
ties are prepared by the oriental fishermen operating along the 
west coast for food, medicine and fertilizer. 

Dulse (Rhodymenia palmata) is quite common on our 
Northwest coast, and is an article of diet amongst the Wash- 
ington and Alaska natives. The natives of Alaska usually 
gather dulse in the summer, dry it in the sun, press it in boxes, 
and then put it away for winter use. Other species of this 
genus grow on the west coast, while several other algae known 
as dulse in Europe anrl used in the same way as Rhodymenia, 
are represented by various species on our west coast. Dulse is 
frequently eaten as a relish in New England by the whites, and 
is also in quite general use in Ireland. 

Vegetable isinglass could be prepared from Gelidium cor- 



46 Pacific Fisheries Society 

neum, an alga which grows in abundance on our coast ; this 
species is identical with the one from which the Japanese pre- 
pare their vegetable isinglass. Other species {G. conltcri and 
G. cartilaginenmn) exist on the coast of California. 

One form of agar-agar, now so extensively used in making 
culture media in bacteriological work, could also be prepared 
from Gelidium. 

Laver {PorpJiyra laciiiiata) is found in abundance along 
our entire coast, but is not collected, except sparingly, by Chin- 
ese, although large quantities are imported by orientals living 
in this country. Laver grows abundantly in bays and near river 
mouths. In Japan this alga is cultivated and most of the crop 
is sun-dried. The green laver, or sea lettuce {Ulva latissima), 
which is abundant on all our coasts, is eaten in Scotland, and is 
also eaten with meat or as greens by native tribes of our North- 
west coast. 

The giant kelp {Nercocystis lutkeana) is found in great 
profusion on the Pacific Coast from Southern California north- 
ward. The natives of this coast have made considerable use of 
this alga, while curios are made from the various portions of the 
plant and sold to tourists visiting California. 

In 1906 two professors of the University of Washington 
invented a process for making a product resembling citron from 
the giant kelp. When made from the bulb it was a difficult 
matter to detect the difference between it and the real citron. 
The flavor was, of course, artificial. 

Numerous species of Laminaria exist on the northern part 
of this coast, and the only use to which the plants are now put 
is for fertilizer. Many of these could be prepared in various 
ways as food and would doubtless meet with an encouraging 
reception if properly introduced. 

Many species of algc'e identical with or similar to those used 
in Scotland. France and Japan in the manufacture of iodine 
abound on our Northwest coast, but are never used for this pur- 
pose, despite the fact that this country is a large consumer of 
iodine, and its preparation in crude form is a comparatively 
simple matter. 

Nearly all marine algae contain iodine, but a few have such 
a comparatively large quantity that they are used almost exclu- 



First Annual Meeting 47 

sively. The Atlantic kelp yields the highest percentage of 
iodine, while the Pacific kelp yields a much higher percentage 
of potash, five or six times as much as the Atlantic kelp. 

During the extraction of iodine, algin, cellulose, dextrin, 
mannite, potash, chloride of potassium, and carbonate of soda 
are also produced. As this country imports annually about 
$13,000,000 worth of potash, all of which could be produced 
from seaweed, we are criminally wasting our resources. 

As a direct fertilizer fresh seaweeds have been in use for 
many years by farmers living on or near the Atlantic coast, but 
very little use has been made of it in this manner on this coast. 

Owing to its large content of water the total quantity of fer- 
tilizing ingredients in plants is very small in proportion to the 
weight of the material. x\s the plants decompose rapidly, and 
the water separates from them quickly, during which operations 
the fertilizing constituents, especially the nitrogen, wastes away 
in the process, it is important that the plants be used within as 
short a time as practicable after they have been collected. 

Seaweeds have a mechanical action on the soil, tending to 
make it friable and binding its constituents together. They also 
have an advantage over barnyard manure in the freedom from 
seeds of land weeds. 

DISCUSSION 

President : Mr. Cobb's paper certainly opens a great field for dis- 
cussion, and I will be glad to hear from any of the members who have 
anything to say on the matter. 

Dr. Smith : Mr. Cobb has certainly sounded a keynote in pomting 
out the wonderful unutilized resources on this coast and the way in 
which the general fishing industry of the Pacific Coast may be extended. 
He has mentioned numerous products about which I would like to say 
something, but time forbids, and I will only call your attention to the 
herring resources of Alaska. I have been satisfied for many years, after 
investigations in western Europe, that the herring in Alaska can become 
one of the great commercial products. Up to this time we have prac- 
tically dipped only a few barrels out of the sea annually, and they have 
been largely used for the making of oil and fertilizer, and more recently 
for bait in the halibut fisheries ; but the vast untouched shoals of her- 
ring in the Alaska waters are awaiting some enterprising men to go 
in there and utilize them. They can be suitably prepared and will cer- 
tainly meet with as ready a market as the Norwegian and Scotch her- 
ring which, as we know, contribute so much to the wealth of those 
countries. The Scotch herring industry, carried on for the most part 
on the North Sea and the islands off the northern coast of Scotland, 



48 Pacific Fisheries Society 

sometimes amounts to 800,000,000 pounds annually, and practically the 
entire catch is salted and shipped to countries that are less favorably 
situated, central Europe, Russia, Germany, etc. There is no reason in 
the world why herring prepared after the Scotch method in Alaska 
should not be sent to Europe and other countries that demand that 
kind of fish. One year in which I was in Scotland looking into the 
herring fisheries, there were 2,800,000 barrels of salted herring pre- 
pared and sold at what was considered a very handsome profit. 

Prof. Kincaid : Mr. President, in this connection I would like 
to mention some observations made at our marine station located at 
Friday Harbor, bearing upon the edibility of certain marine animals. 
Several years ago we had in our party a young man of a particularly 
daring gastronomic disposition and we appointed him our ofiicial 
taster. He was apparently not afraid of anything along this line, and 
so we turned over to him a considerable series of animals taken from 
the waters of the archipelago and when he reported favorably other 
members of the party tested these culinary curiosities. The most strik- 
ing discovery we made was that the giant barnacles (Balanus cver- 
manni), occurring in such profusion in the northern section of Puget 
Sound, are really very delicious indeed. When cooked and eaten in 
the fresh state they were just as palatable as any shrimp or crab could 
be ; and since they can be gathered in great quantities and will survive 
shipment in the living state for long distances, there is no reason why 
the future should not develop a barnacle fishery in the Northwest. 
Individual animals of this species are frequently found attaining a 
height of six inches and a diameter of five inches, indicating that these 
are truly the giants of this branch of the crustacean series. 

Mr. Cobb : I would state, to give you an idea of what difference 
the preparation of a product in a proper manner will make in the value 
of the same, my experience with the herring we put up on the Shum- 
agin Islands. For the ordinary trade they were too large — as herring 
are generally sold by the piece a medium sized fish goes better than a 
very large one — but we prepared them in the best manner we could, 
grading them by size very carefully. The larger ones averaged about 
225 to the barrel. Previous to this, Alaska herring had been sellmg 
for about $7.00, the highest price we could get, and the merchants in 
San Francisco objected strenuously to paying even that. When we 
brought these from Alaska and exposed them for sale, the lowest price 
we received for them was $11.00 — they all went at $11.00 or better, and 
the merchants have been very anxious to get more of them since. 

Mr. Fraser : In connection with the herring question, I might men- 
tion the fact that this year at Nanaimo there has been an experiment 
carried out in connection with putting up pickled herring. One firm 
brought out a Scotchman and about eight Scotch lassies to put up her- 
ring during the season. There was no trouble in disposing of the fish, 
as they were considered to be every bit as good as the Scotch herring. 
In general they are not so large as the Scotch herring, as the average 
weight is only about a quarter of a pound, and I have not seen any 
Pacific herring weighing as much as a pound. The British Columbia 
herring industry is centered around Nanaimo. At the highest price 
received in the season 1912-13, viz., $29 a ton, the herring fishing is 
quite profitable, but during last season the price dropped to about $5, 
a price likely to make the balance on the wrong side of the ledger. 

Mr. Cobb : I would state that the size herring I referred to are 
found onlv in two sections of Alaska — Cook Inlet and the Shumagin 



First Annual Meeting^ 49 

Islands. Southeast Alaska herring will run about the same as Nanaimo ; 
they would probably average four or five hundred to the barrel. 

Mr. Fraser: How long are those herring? 

Mr. Cobb: About fifteen to eighteen inches long. 

Mr. Fraser : I notice Jordan and Everman put the length at 
eighteen inches, and I was wondering where they got it. 

President: Arc there any further remarks on this paper of Mr. 
Cobb's? I am sure that papers of that kind would undoubtedly be of 
great interest to the fishing community at large, and we hope through 
the medium of our report to give it the widest circulation possible. 



ANGLING AND NETTING; THE CONSERVATION OF THE 
MARINE FISHES OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 

By Charles F. Holder, of Throop College of Technology 
(Read by Mr. H. L. Osterud.) 

At the present day one may contemplate the Rise and Fall 
of the Dutch Republic with serenity, but the rise and fall of the 
sport of sea angling and the fishing industry of Southern Cali- 
fornia has ben accompanied with not only wailing and gnashing 
of teeth, but even more hostile exuberance. 

It is a somewhat singailar fact that Southern California has 
been more or less neglected by the government. The people 
are virile, intelligent, and in the main from the East, but the 
Middle West, not interested in sea products, predominates to a 
large extent among citizens, which possibly explains the fact 
that there has been no fierce and continued demand for aid. 
Los Angeles is a most vigorous city with 450,000 inhabitants, 
but it has no garrison — is entirely unprotected. Its coast has 
one lighthouse. Its islands have no lights. It had until last 
year no laws protecting its sea fishes to amount to anything; 
in fact, has been left to itself. It so happened I was born on the 
New England coast and became familiar with the marine fishes, 
as my father, with Louis Agassiz, dredged Massachusetts Bay, 
and in 1859-60 I accompanied him to Tortugas on the Florida 
reef, where I resided five years, observing the fishes. In 1885 I 
was forced to come to Southern California for my health, and 
have constantly observed the sea fishes here, and the keen 
struggle between the alien fishermen and the few who believed 
in fish conservation. 

I am, you will observe, presenting my own views and am 
not quoting any authorities. I saw the gradual reduction of 
marine fishes on the Atlantic Coast. In 1869 I followed the 
shad in their migration north. In the St. John's I used them 
as shark bait, they were so common. I remember shad in the 
Connecticut, Hudson and other rivers, but today the Eastern 
net catch of shad in the Potomac for the entire season of 



52 Pacific Fisheries Socict\ 

1913-14 was not equal to the catch of tzvo days ten or twelve 
years ago. They have been netted to possible extinction by 
unscrupulous netters who have looted the United States of a 
great industry. The sturgeon, each individual of which is val- 
ued at $125, is almost gone. I have seen Florida looted of its 
birds. I have known 10,000 robins to be killed in one day in a 
certain state. In a word, the alien is with us. He comes from 
a land of no game laws, and he brings his habits of destruction 
with him. In 1910 I was in Italy. Every living creature has a 
price. A seine was hauled in front of my hotel on the Riviera 
every hour. The crop of echini and sea anemones was failing ; 
even they were eaten, and a fish was a jewel. 

In 1886 I visited Santa Catalina Island, twenty miles from 
Los Angeles, an island of 55,000 acres, 22 miles long, with a lee, 
a perfect fish refuge and spawning ground to be seen without a 
special gift. Every rock was piled with abalone or haliotis, a 
valued shell for the pearl and for the meat. The spiny lobster 
or crayfish was just as abundant. The waters were alive with 
fishes of great economic value. There were many kinds. Two 
swordfishes {Xiphias and Tetraptnnis), the great jewfish 
(Stcrcolcpis), the yellowtail (Seriola), the tuna {Thynnns), 
the albacore, bonito of two varieties, barracuda, whitefish, 
sheepshead, rock bass of many species, groupers or rockfish of 
large size, white sea bass, surf-fish, roncador, and dozens more, 
not to speak of sardines, anchovies, mackerel, and a group of 
the rarest fish in the world, Luvanis, Rcgalccits, Opha, etc. 

In a word, gentlemen, this was a fish paradise. You could 
catch thirty-pound yellowtails from the beach, and the men 
looked into their boats in the morning for flying fish which the 
white sea bass chased out of the water at night. The climate 
in winter was like an Eastern October ; in summer like a New 
England September ; clear, stormless and delightful, up to all 
the praises that have been awarded it by temperamental enthusi- 
asts. I saw the change, the coming of the alien — the Japanese, 
Chinese, Italian, Greek, the Portuguese — and the lax care of 
the authorities. The crayfish gradually became rare. The 
Chinese looted the shores of abalone. They sent the meat to 
China and the shells to Germany by the ton. Gangs worked in 
platoons ; one five feet from shore, another at seven, another at 



First Annual Meeting 53 

nine or ten, another at ten or twenty. And so they moved down 
Santa Catahna and San Clemente, an island equally large, and 
took every shell, little and big", and all animal life. 

I protested in the press and made myself unpopular to no 
avail. The Greeks killed the g-ulls to bait their lobster traps. 
We stopped this, and only last month I secured protection to 
sea lions. The gasoline boat now arrived and the demand 
for fish jumped. 

Twenty-nine years ago I came to the conclusion that the 
islands were spawning grounds and the source of supply to all 
Los Angeles county and far beyond. All the fish spawn here ; 
the yellowtail, white sea bass, sheepshead, whitefish. black sea 
bass, in the: kelp ; others alongshore in open water. The sar- 
dines spawned in the bays, particularly Avalon bay. From 
April to October was the main spawning time, especially 
August and September. 

From 1885 to 1895 vast schools of tuna (tunny) came regu- 
larly June 15th and remained until August or September. The 
gasoline boats now enabled the Greeks and Italians to get off- 
shore and back quickly. They began to net the islands with 
seines. One hundred and fifty seines, fast to the kelp and run- 
ning offshore long distances, have been counted in a mile and a 
half. The entire coast was netted at night with seines and gill- 
nets of all kinds, and during the day dozens of big boats fol- 
lowed the fish with purse-nets and took them by the ton. The 
tuna was not caught ; it was driven away. It came inshore day 
and night, to feed and spawn, ran into the maze of nets, was 
frightened off, and ten years ago left almost entirely. 

This was one of the most valuable fishes to Southern Cali- 
fornia. It attracted anglers from all over the world. It is esti- 
mated that the tuna alone brought half a million dollars to Cali- 
fornia per annum fifteen years ago, money that was spent all 
over California and in Washington and Oregon, as the anglers 
came west on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and Sunset 
line, and after the tuna left, went north and east over the north- 
ern routes. 

At last the fish disappeared altogether. Today tuna fishing 
in the Mediterranean is one of the assets of Italy, and it would 
be almost equally valuable here today. But nothing could with- 



54 Pacific Fisheries Society 

stand the looting-, the fences, hurdles and repetition of nets. The 
raids of the netters was appalling. Sardine canneries were now 
started. I organized the Tuna Club about this time to conserve 
the tuna and other fishes. Distinguished anglers joined it, gave 
their moral support, and we did what we could to induce the 
market men to believe that fishes could be exhausted. 

We demonstrated that Avalon bay was a spawning ground 
and endeavored to stop the netting. We asked for one half 
mile, and allowed them sixty miles of the coast line. But they 
refused, and then we began to fight. I fought them before the 
supervisors and stopped them in a compromise for three years ; 
then they began again and this wonderful place was only saved 
from entire looting by getting a law to prevent netting within a 
mile of a sewer. 

This little bay was a source of supply for a vast area. The 
sardines born here returned, schooled, swam out into the chan- 
nel as food for large market fishes ; there could be no mistake 
of this. There was a direct relation between the abundance of 
sardines and an abundant supply of big fish. But the can- 
neries would take from ten to twenty tons of sardines and smelt 
at a haul with purse-nets. 

They would have taken every last fish and reviled Nature 
for not supplying more. For years we fought, and endeavored 
to educate the men ; a waste of sentiment, and I soon learned 
that the thing- to do was to fight, first, last and all the time. It 
took me literally twenty years to get a bill passed at Sacramento 
in the California Legislature to recognize the fact that Santa 
Catalina is a spawning ground. I took Dr. Jordan, Dr. Henry 
van Dyke, Dr. Griimell of Berkeley, and dozens of men to vari- 
ous points — men who knew. Here is the report to me of Dr. 
David Starr Jordan, the world's greatest ichthological expert: 

December 5. 1912. 
Dr. Chas. F. Holder, 

Throop College of Technology, 
Pasadena, California. 

Dear Sir — I trust that you may be successful in having Santa Cata- 
lina and San Clemente Islands set aside as fish preserves. These two 
islands and the smooth waters off their shores are the spawning 
grounds, above all others, of the greatest game fish in the country. 
The white sea bass, the great jewfish, the spearfish, swordfisli, tuna, 
bonito, albacore, the Japanese tuna (yellow-fin tuna), all spawn on the 



First Annual Meeting 55 

rocky and other places about these islands, as well as a multitude of 
smaller fishes vahial)le to the angler or to the markets. 

Many of these fish spawn in the kelp which surrounds these islands. 
The netting carried on inshore disturbs these fishes at spawning time, 
and it is said that there has been a very marked falling off ot these 
species. As Avalon, on Santa Catalina, is the great center of big game 
fishing, the disappearance of any of these species makes a great loss to 
the people who have investments there as well as to the visitors who 
come there for fishing purposes. 

It is desired to prohibit the use of seines and all nets for market 
purposes within three miles of the shores of cither of these islands. 
This allows the professional fisherman the entire Santa Barljara chan- 
nel, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and the rest comprising the Santa Bar- 
bara group. 

, I trust that you and our friends will be successful in getting the 
statutes passed which shall protect these islands and set them apart as 
spawning grounds for the great game fishes of Southern California. 
Very truly yours, 
(Signed) DAVID STARR JORDAN. 

Every man who saw the situation agreed with me, and 
when our bill was at last drawn I had letters from many men 
advocating it. Our bill recognized the coast of Santa Catalina 
as a spawning ground, a source of supply of market fishes of 
Southern California, or a large portion of her coast, and it 
called for absolute cessation of netting of all sorts within three 
miles of shore. Line fishing was permitted anywhere, and the 
men had the entire Santa Catalina channel, thousands of square 
miles ; all San Clcmcnte Island, as large as Santa Catalina ; 
the Coronado Islands, the Santa Barbara Islands, and three or 
four hundred miles of mainland shore. But they fought for 
Santa Catalina ; they wanted everything, and raised a petition, 
signed by 3,000 men, in protest. 

By this time the normal catch of 1912 was 75 per cent less 
than that of 1885. It had steadily decreased. The tuna had 
entirely disappeared. The albacore, canned as "Blue Sea 
Tuna," now followed by one hundred or more Japanese boats, 
dropped far below normal, and this was true of all the distinc- 
tively pelagic fishes. 

The law making Santa Catalina a fish reservation passed 
and was signed by Governor Johnson in August, 1913. They 
tried to evade it, and soon several convictions were made. To- 
day, ten months later, a wonderful change has taken place. 
There have not been so many fish about for fifteen years. They 
are lying in the kelp beds, yellowtail, white sea bass, and others, 



56 Pacific Fisheries Society 

undisturbed, and for a single year the change is marvelous. 
What would it be in five years of absolute rest? The almost 
ruined Avalonians, who had an investment of nearly $300,000 
in boats and equipment of all kinds, dependent on the fishing, 
took on fresh hope; the tuna was expected back and hopes of 
cheaper fish revived among the consumers of Southern Cali- 
fornia. 

Rut it was too much, possibly, to expect, when avarice and 
ignorance were on one side, and mere intelligence and conserva- 
tion on the other. The canneries wanted sardines. The net 
men wanted to haul and set nets at night or any time. It was 
too good to give up, so the market men determined to fight for 
the island's protected shores. Some sort of an organization was 
necessary, so the poultry, game and fish dealers of San Fran- 
cisco started the "People's Fish and Game Protective Associa- 
tion of California." The first officers and founders were as 
follows : 

President, Barclay Henley, attorney for John F. Corriea ; vice-presi- 
dent, John F. Corriea, game and poultry dealer ; secretary, F. INI. Bailey, 
secretary of Corriea Corporation. 

Executive Conniiittcc: Cecil Raymond, game and poultry dealer; 
L. A. Sischo, market hunter; W. H. ^laack, wholesale tish dealer; Chas. 
A. Cook, and John B. Campedonico, game and commission merchant. 

They sent their secretary, Mr. Bailey, down to Southern 
California to secure signers to an initiative petition, and this 
is going on at present (June, 1914). If they obtain about 
30,000 names the question as to whether the three-mile spawn- 
ing bed law shall be annulled will be voted on.* 

The very suggestion of such a move is the piscatorial crime 
of the century and is being fought with a vigor that does not 
argue well for peace. The opponents to the so-called "Pro- 
tective Association" in San Francisco have raised a large 
sum, and Prof. Taylor, of the University of California, is 
going over the state in a campaign of education, paying par- 
ticular attention to the bird and game side of the question. 
I have done what I could to explain to clubs and the public 
the sea-fish side, and I have taken particular pains to urge a 
friendly feeling between dealers and the public. 

*Mr. Bailey withdrew Santa Catalina Island from the initiative peti- 
tion in 1914, after hearing my statement, and thanked me for preventing 
him from innocently injuring the state fisheries. — C. F. H., 1915 



First Annual Meeting 57 

But the fact remains that a man in the fish business, in the 
poultry business, and wild g-ame business, or a market hunter, 
as was one of the original officers of this "Protective Society," 
is not of the exact mental fiber that cares to know anything 
about conservation. The taking of market fishes here is entire- 
ly in the hands of ignorant aliens — Japanese, Chinese, Portu- 
guese and Italians — who come from lands where nothing is 
known about conservation or wild life protection. They scorn 
the idea of leaving- anything for the man of to-morrow, and 
even think a man is a fool to consider it. 

Conservation is not for them. Congressman Linthicum, 
of Maryland, tells me that if the shad men on the Chesapeake 
had allowed but ten per cent of the shad to go up the Potomac 
it would have insured the supply for another year. Would 
they do it? No, they preferred to take them all and ruin the 
greatest and most valuable fishing- in America. So on the 
Pacific. Argument is worthless. Nearly all the fishermen are 
aliens. They are sent out to get fish at whatever cost, and the 
American conservationists believe the officers of many of the 
market fish companies to be actuated by a similar desire. 

There is one saving clause to the situation. We have 
educated the masses of the people, and the tax payer is aware 
that our fisheries are being preyed upon, exterminated by men 
who in some cases do not have sufficient intelligence to even 
protect their own interests. It is the story of the goose that 
laid the golden egg, and in California they are in the grossest 
ignorance killing the goose ; but such gross ignorance reacts 
on the consumer. It will increase the cost of living, and the 
tax payer is awakening to the fact that the American fisheries 
are being ruined. 

It is necessary to give some oversight to the sea-food sup- 
ply, just as it is necessary to protect the forests. Half a dozen 
societies, particularly the California Audubon Society, is fight- 
ing the good fight for wild life with publicity. Dr. David 
Starr Jordan is its president and I am one of the vice-presi- 
dents. We are doing what we can to make the sea fisheries 
last for all time, and to aid the ignorant dealers to save them- 
selves. 



58 Pacific Fisheries Society 

The conservation of the sea fisheries of Southern Cali- 
fornia is one of her most important problems. The present 
year I organized "The Wild Life Protective League of South- 
ern California" to carry on this propaganda of education. It 
appears to be a fixed idea in the minds of many that the sea 
cannot be exhausted. If it were not for game laws and the 
hundreds who are fighting for wild life, hundreds of species 
would be wiped ofif the earth with remarkable celerity. When 
a man gets the idea into his head that gulls, the most valuable 
scavengers in the world, are only good for baiting lobster pots, 
or that insect eating birds are only for the pot, or that 
the beautiful meadow lark ought to be exterminated, such 
minds and men need the strict surveillance of the American 
people. Personally, I take great pride in the development of 
the economic products of the sea and land. I desire to aid in 
the development of the sea fishes for the benefit of the seiner, 
of the fishermen, the canner and the market dealer, but as an 
American, as a modern American, I deem it my duty to state 
and nation to remember that I am but the custodian of the 
products of Nature's gifts ; I am responsible for them. If the 
world was going away with us, it would be well and good to 
kill all the animals, cut down the trees, but our tenure of life 
is but a drop in the bucket. Man is increasing, and it is the 
duty of every man of intelligence to remember his children 
and his children's children, and leave something for them. 
The man or men who do not appreciate this are a menace to 
civilization and must be watched and forced to comport them- 
selves in such manner that our great economic questions may 
be solved to give the future all it needs and at a not increasing 
price. This, Mr. President, I deem a solemn duty and obliga- 
tion to every educated, intelligent American. 

DISCUSSION 

President: In connection with the paper which has just been read, 
I wish to state that we are having a rather severe fight in CaHfornia 
at the present time, as indicated by the remarks in Mr. Holder's paper. 
He alludes to the fishermen ; the fishermen there are both good and 
bad. The aliens he refers to are extremely bad. We have, on the other 
hand, a number of fishermen there of the more enlightened type who 
are in hearty sympathy with the movement Mr. Holder is fostering. 
We find that the heads of big fish companies there are aiding us in 
every way possible to keep down the depredations of the aliens. In 



First Annual Meeting 59 

connection with the preserve he speaks of at Catalina Islands, it might 
be of interest to you to know that we have established a number of 
preserves along the coast of California. We have one at Catalina now, 
extending three miles out ; we have another spawning ground and fish 
preserve in Cache Slough in the delta of the Sacramento ; we have 
another one in Monterey Bay, and there are others that I can not recall 
just at the present moment. 

We are undergoing a crisis in California now and we are making 
every effort possible to defeat the objects and purposes of the associa- 
tion which is masquerading in California under the name of the People's 
Fish and Game Protective Association. It is not composed of the "peo- 
ple" ; it is composed of a lot of foreigners who come out to California 
and wish to strip the waters of all their fish, and have no respect at all 
for any restrictive measures. Their object seems to be to take every- 
thing they can and make as much money as they can, without any regard 
for the future whatever. 

Dr. Smith : Mr. President, Dr. Holder in his paper referred to the 
condition of the shad fisheries on the Atlantic Coast. That is a subject 
to which we have been giving a good deal of attention in Washington, 
and which concerns us very deeply. The shad fisheries of the Chesa- 
peake Bay — and that is by far the most important fishing ground in 
North America, and the shad is the most important fishing constituent 
of its fisheries — is in a most precarious condition. This has been brought 
about just as similar conditions have been brought about in other waters 
of the Atlantic Coast with regard to other species, not by unscrupulous 
foreigners or aliens. The fishermen have been operating within their 
rights, and far from being aliens, they are either Mayflower descend- 
ants, or claim to be such. Whatever may be the circumstances on this 
coast, we must ascribe untoward conditions on the Atlantic coast to the 
native citizen. The shad fisheries of the Chesapeake Bay and tribu- 
taries, which have yielded many millions of dollars annually in former 
times, have now reached such a stage that the fishery has ceased to be 
profitable, and I doubt if a single fisherman of the Chesapeake Bay and 
and tributaries during the year 1914 paid expenses. This result has been 
brought about through the indifference of the states and the state legis- 
latures. Between Washington and the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, 
involving both sides of the Potomac River and the western shore of 
Chesapeake Bay, there are probably, on an average, not less than five 
thousand pound nets set for shad, and in addition there are thousands 
of gill nets and a few seines. The large seines which were the predomi- 
nant apparatus in former years have been almost superseded by the 
more economic trap or pound net. There are places on the western 
shore of Chesapeake Bay where until a year or two ago unbroken lines 
of pound nets extended for several miles from shore. The rivers have 
had their mouths absolutely blocked, and Secretary Redfield has told a 
committee of Congress that the shad in order to reach their spawning 
grounds not only needed a college education, but required the aid of 
charts and had to be familiar with the navigation laws. It is almost a 
physical impossibility for fish in many of these important streams to get 
more than a few miles above the mouths. That is the condition we are 
up against in the east. 

Mr. Cobb: Dr. Smith's remarks remind me very much of the condi- 
tion I found prevalent in Albemarle Sound in North Carolina one year. 
The little county of Chowan has a water frontage of somewhere in the 
neighborhood of 25 to 30 miles. In that area I found 999 pound nets 
that year, and they were running out in strings of from five to seventeen 
each. If a fish could get by there he was certainly a lucky animal. 



60 Pacific Fisheries Society 

Prksident: We liiul in California lliat wo Iiavo some foreigners 
there wlio assist us greatly in tlie proteelion of tish. Take for example 
the crab men around San iM-aneiseo Hay; they are continually co-operat- 
ing with us for the betterment of laws and conditions around the bay, 
but the fishermen that Mr. Holder refers to are a set of Japanese and 
aliens that are located around Los Angeles, and they are particularly 
bad. They have no respect at all for the law and have never shown any 
disposition to co-operate with the Connnissioner of the State in the pro- 
tection and propagation of the I'lsh. The situation there is pretty l)ad in 
some idaces. 'I'ake for example on the Klamath River ; there the nets 
arc stretched across the river to such an extent that it is almost a physi- 
cal impossibility for a salmon to ascend that stream. The stream is not 
very wide and is so completely and thoroughly netted that the hsh have 
no chance. We attempted at the last session of the legislature to have 
certain restrictions passed, but we did not get the full measure of what 
we thought was right. However, we compromised in order to get any- 
thing through at all and the conditions there are now a little better than 
they were before. We hope, however, to have some better laws passed 
at the next session to improve the conditions at that point. 



PACIFIC COAST BIOLOGICAL STATION, DEPARTURE 
BAY, B. C. 

By C. IV1CLi:y\N I''kasi:k, Curotor 

Iti tlic prc-Darvvinian days, wlicn every one had llii' idea of 
a se])arate creation fcjr each species of animal and i)lant, an in- 
stitution for stiidyinj^ the relation of species to s])ecies, of or^an 
to orj^an, etc., was not even desirahle. Later, when the tlu'ory 
of evolution in some form had hecome widely accepted, inter- 
est was aroused not only in the relation of si)ecies to species 
and (jrj^an to orj:^an, but also the relation of s])ecics to its en- 
vironment. In the sea as well as on land, there are always 
certain localities that are better suited for certain forms as 
well as for life in g-eneral. Naturally, therefore, there is a 
tendency for those interested in the study of life to seek out 
these localities. This is done readily on land, since one familiar 
with the requisite conditions can readily see if these conditions 
exist in any locality. This is not so true in relation to the 
life in the sea, as the conditions can nc^t be taken in readily with 
a glance, but much work of a varied nature has to be done 
before even an estimate can be made. Since that is the case, 
it follows that progress cannot be made everywhere at the 
same time, but instead, certain Ujcalities must be picked upon 
that offer not only an a])pearance of richness of life bnl also 
accessibility and a possibility for using facilities for research. 
This has led to the establishment of marine biological stations 
in many localities. 

At first these stations were of purely scientific interest, as 
the mass of the peoj)le were slow to see that they, with no 
scientific knowledge, could obtain any advantage, direct or 
indirect, from any knovvlerlge that might be obtained from ihe 
work of the scientist in this regard. Naturally, under these 
conditions there was little chance for getting much government 
support. As time wore on there was a gradual change in the 
viewpoint. When it became more widely kncjwn that the study 
of the life-history of many plants and animals led to the (lis- 



62 Pacific Fisheries Society 

covery of new methods for increasing- the supply of useful 
products, for making use of what was previously a waste and 
for eradicating forms that are harmful, the interest in research 
became extended beyond the narrow bounds of those directly 
engaged in it to many others who felt that benefit from such 
research was to be derived by all. In all countries with demo- 
cratic government, and perhaps even where autocracy is sup- 
posed to hold sway, the acts of the government must to some 
extent be an index of the opinion of the people, hence as an 
outcome of this interest various governments began to give 
assistance, as represented by experimental farms and stations, 
agricultural colleges, etc., on land, and marine biological sta- 
tions on the seashore. This assistance has become more and 
more noticeable, but is still far from being as complete as is 
desirable, largely because there are still many legislators, prob- 
ably backed up by constituents, who cannot see that any in- 
formation in any field of biological research must be of value, 
directly or indirectly, to every other field. They still separate 
the economic from the scientific, with the idea that anything 
scientific can never have any economic value and hence money 
spent in furthering scientific work is money thrown away. 

The government of the United States made an early start 
and now for over 40 years the laboratory at Woods Hole, in 
connection with the Bureau of Fisheries, has been doing useful 
work. During these years the scientific work of the bureau 
has expanded and other stations have been established. In that 
regard the Pacific Coast has been somewhat neglected, but if 
I understand it aright, it will soon be impossible to make such 
a statement. The extensive work of the "Albatross" all along 
the coast has helped to make up for this deficiency. 

Although Canada gave early support to much exploratory 
work, she has been somewhat behind in the matter of starting 
biological stations. It was not until 1899 that the first marine 
station vv^as established at St. Andrews, N. B. Not so very 
long afterwards the needs of the Pacific Coast were recognized 
by the establishment of a station on the north shore of De- 
parture Bay, near Nanaimo, B. C. Much of the credit for the 
establishment of this station was due to the late Rev. G. W. 



First Annual Meeting 63 

Taylor, a field naturalist and omnivorous collector, who, work- 
ing principally through the Royal Society of Canada, so much 
impressed the necessity of a station on this coast on the De- 
partment of Fisheries, that a start was made and a building 
erected ready for use in the summer of 1908, under the direc- 
tion of Mr. Taylor, who was appointed first curator. 

Almost any location which afifords harbor or wharf accom- 
modation on the west coast would provide plenty of oppor- 
tunity for investigation, but Departure Bay was chosen on 
account of some special features. There is no safer harbor 
on the coast for all weathers and the station site is conveniently 
situated and easy of access since it is but three miles by water 
and four and one-half miles by road from Nanaimo, which 
provides the greater part of the supplies needed and has good 
boat service to Vancouver and good train service to Victoria. 
This means much to a station that is kept open the whole year 
round. It is favorably situated because it is within easy reach 
of the large archipelago situated along the east coast of Van- 
couver Island between Nanaimo and Victoria and not so very 
far from the equally extensive archipelago lying between the 
north end of the island and the mainland, while across the 
Strait of Georgia it is not so far to the mouth of the Fraser 
and the Point Grey fishing grounds. Consequently, quite a 
large portion of the 25,000 miles of tidewater line of British 
Columbia is less than a day away. For that reason it is a 
good center from which to work at problems concerning all 
the food fish of this part of the coast, with the possible excep- 
tion of the halibut, as well as for the majority of the species 
of invertebrates of commercial value. It is pre-eminently 
a herring center and, since the herring serves as a food supply 
for a great number of marine forms, that in itself is quite an 
important matter. Without going outside the bounds of the 
bay much can be learned concerning the life-history of the 
herring, coho, spring and dog salmon, steelhead, blue or 
green cod, rock cod, capelin, the white perch and several of 
the flat fish, not to mention several other forms that as yet are 
not considered desirable as food, while the common butter 
clam and the little-necked clam, as well as the common mussel, 
are found right at the door. 



64 Pacific Fisheries Society 

On account of the volume of fresh water coming- into the 
strait from the Fraser river and several other rivers and 
streams, water of all degrees of salinity is found within a 
comparatively narrow range. Within even a smaller range 
may be found every variety of shore, from extensive tide- 
flats to the steepest promontories, with every variation in cur- 
rent from the still water of the quiet bay to the tide rip of 
Dodds or Seymour Narrows. With these may be coupled an- 
other fact not to be despised, viz., at all the spring tides in 
the summer time the low tides come at suitable hours of the 
day for collecting. 

I shall not refer to the richness of the fauna and flora ex- 
cept to say that anyone who has had a chance to compare the 
marine life of the Pacific Coast, almost anywhere from Puget 
Sound to Bering Sea, with any portion of the Atlantic Coast, 
for instance, will be quite satisfied to stay with the west and 
its problems. 

One other point should be mentioned, although it does not 
apply to Departure Bay more than to many other points on the 
coast. It is the fact that during the whole year investigation 
may be carried on in comfort, in which regard we are much 
better ofif than similar stations along the Atlantic Coast, even 
than those very much farther south. 

The start for the station was not a very pretentious one. 
A building was erected with a laboratory accommodation for 
eight investigators, with library, dark-room, etc., a dining 
room and four bed-rooms. The caretaker's house, with the 
kitchen, was built separately but near by. So far these build- 
ings have not been added to but tent accommodation has been 
provided for some of the summer workers. For a time few 
facilities were provided but these were gradually added until 
now a fair provision is made, although much still remains to 
be supplied. The boat equipment is fairly satisfactory. A 
40- foot gasoline launch with 20 horse-power engine provides 
the most important means for transportation. It is a good 
sea boat with accommodations for four, or, if necessary, six, on 
a prolonged cruise, although it is not very often used for trips 
that take more than a day. An 18-foot launch with a 3 horse- 
power engine serves for shore collecting and for making short 



First Annual Meeting 65 

trips. Several rowboats complete the outfit. The supply of 
dredges, tangles, nets, etc., is not very extensive, but this will 
be remedied in the near future. The laboratory is fairly well 
equipped with glassware, preservative material and general 
reagents. 

In the first couple of years the library facilities were almost 
a negative quantity, but Mr. Taylor put his library at the dis- 
posal of those who worked at the station. After his decease 
the scientific portion of the library was secured by the Bio- 
logical Board and in the meantime many other volumes had 
been obtained. Other additions have since been made until 
now there are 800 or 900 volumes, apart from a considerable 
collection of separates. Men in other parts of the country are 
not likely to realize how much the library means to us here in 
the northwest. In the east arrangements can be made for 
obtaining books from Toronto, Montreal, Chicago, New York, 
Boston, Philadelphia or Washington, and in the south from 
California and Stanford, but here we have no large library 
within easy reach. It takes a long time to get books from any 
of the centers if we could arrange for it, and in any case the 
express or postal rates make much of it prohibitive. 

During the early years of the life of the Canadian stations 
the direction of the work lay in the hands of the Biological 
Board, a board consisting of university professors, with the 
exception of the chairman, who was the Director of Fisheries 
at Ottawa. The funds for the carrying on of the work, how- 
ever, were administered through the Department of Fisheries 
at Ottawa. As some of the officials of this department were 
not at all times conversant with the needs of the board, the 
authority which they possessed was not always used to the 
satisfaction of the board. Somewhat over two years ago, in 
the spring of 1912, a change for the better was made in this 
connection, giving the Biological Board of Canada wider pow- 
ers. The personnel of the board was not changed and Com- 
missioner Prince remained as chairman of the board, but the 
annual grant through the Department of Fisheries is given 
as a lump sum to be administered by the board without any 
reference to the government officials, except that the account- 



66 Pacific Fisheries Society 

ing has to pass the examination of the auditor-general. No 
official of the Fisheries Department, with the exception of the 
minister himself, has any say in the work of the board, either 
concerning the matter of disbursements and appointments or 
the nature of the work to be carried on. The board is therefore 
entirely non-political and consequently is not handicapped as 
it might possibly be under other conditions. 

The Pacific Coast station has not been overly well sup- 
plied with either funds or men since its establishment, but at 
present the prospects are brighter. That does not mean that 
the work has been at a standstill, because a good beginning 
has been made along several lines. That the public at large 
is not fully aware of the tangible results from these beginnings 
is partly due to the lack of unity in the method of publication. 
The board has published three volumes of Contributions to 
Canadian Biology, each containing a number of papers, but 
this does not represent by any means the full number of papers 
that have been published. Apart from these the greater num- 
ber of papers have appeared in the publications of the Royal 
Society of Canada, the Geological Survey of Canada and the 
Royal Canadian Institute, but others have appeared in scien- 
tific magazines of Canada, the United States and Europe. 

Along with the work that has been done by investigators 
who have visited the station may be placed the work of' those, 
either in Canada or elsewhere, to whom material has been sent 
for examination and report. Much of this has been of a tax- 
onomic nature, for in this locality, as in every other, a large 
amount of work of a systematic nature had to be done at the 
outset before the other branches of biology could be entered 
upon with much chance of success. With this as a basis prob- 
lems bearing on the life-history of forms of economic import- 
ance have been worked out. 

As has been stated. Rev. G. W. Taylor, curator of the sta- 
tion from its establishment until his death in 1912, was an 
extensive collector and naturally, therefore, a systematist. Al- 
though he confined his attention in taxonomy to fishes, mol- 
luscs and decapods largely, he collected in all invertebrate 
groups and in many cases sent large collections away to be 



First Annual Mcetin^^ 67 

worked up. In this way a general idea of the most con- 
spicuous forms at least was obtained. This information was 
readily supplied to other workers who wished to make use of 
it. Unfortunately, for two years or more before his death 
he was not physically able to go on with his work as he wished, 
and many of his notes that would have been of value to 
science if he had had a chance to assemble them, were not 
put in shape that could be made use of by others. 

After Mr. Taylor's death the writer was appointed curator. 
His work at the station in previous years in association with 
Mr. Taylor provided a connecting link with the work already 
done. 

The curator continues the marine investigation throughout 
the year. All the other workers have held university posi- 
tions and hence have had to confine their visits to the summer 
months, but in many cases material has been collected and 
carried away so that odd moments snatched from regular 
duties during the year might be applied to a continuance of the 
work on the problems started during the summer. Now that 
the board is likely to receive better financial support it is the 
intention to gradually add to the permanent force in order to 
have a number of experts along certain lines to be able to give 
definite first-hand information to the Minister of Fisheries on 
any scientific question that may arise in connection with his 
department. Already some attempt has been made to do this, 
but the questions have been too numerous as compared wfth 
the number of investigators to make it possible to give satis- 
factory information in all cases within a reasonable time. As 
yet this plan is too tentative for me to give any detailed infor- 
mation concerning it. Certain economic problems, however, 
are already receiving some attention and others are looming 
up for attention in the near future. Practically every one of 
these problems will require years of work, hence it is all the 
more desirable that the same individual should .tackle the prob- 
lem year after year, and this can be done most satisfactorily 
by his being able to give his whole time throughout the year. 

The most important problems now being attacked are : A 
study of the life-history of the herring and of the halibut, the 



68 Pacific Fisheries Society 

iodine content in plant and animal tissue, the magnitude and 
value of the kelp beds, and the relation of the salinity of the 
sea water to its specific gravity which will serve as a basis 
for a great variety of problems. Incidentally, the work of 
making a biological survey of the region is slowly progress- 
ing. In 1896, in 1905, and in 1908, attempts were made to 
introduce lobsters into the \'ancouver Island waters. In one 
instance these lobsters did very well for three months or more, 
after which all trace of them was lost. Later, in 1909, a num- 
ber were hatched at the station and the young lobsters were 
liberated in the bay, but nothing has been seen of them since. 
Under the circumstances at the time it was not possible to fol- 
low up the experiments far enough, but there was nothing to 
show definitely that the rearing of lobsters on this coast was an 
impossibility. What little evidence there was was in the other 
direction. The Minister of Fisheries thinks it wise to experi- 
ment further in this regard (the U. S. Bureau is evidently of 
the same opinion, judging from recent developments), and 
that a better basis may be obtained on which to work a sur- 
vey of the coast in the vicinity will be made to decide upon 
the more desirable locations for lobster production. As there 
are many such that seem similar to those on the Atlantic Coast, 
where the lobster makes its home, it will require some time 
to complete the survey, but in connection with it other useful 
information should be obtained. A start will be made at the 
survey this summer. 

The board, while realizing that all scientific work is eco- 
nomic, has decided that since there are so many problems of 
special economic importance requiring scientific investigation, 
that these shall receive the first call and for the present atten- 
tion will be focused upon them. 

Before concluding, I must say a word concerning the sta- 
tion in relation to its only near neighbor, the Friday Harbor 
station, controlled and operated by the University of Wash- 
ington and sister institutions. We are about 70 miles apart, 
across an imaginary line that, since it passes through the Strait 
of Haro, is so imaginary that it hinders communication very 
little and scientific communication not at all. The problems to 



First Annual Meet in if 69 

be faced at the Friday Harbor station arc much similar to 
those at the Departure Bay station, hence any work done at 
the one must of necessity be of value to the other. There is 
no danger of either running- short of work in the present gen- 
eration at any rate, hence there is no necessity for or indica- 
tion of rivalry between the two. It is a pleasure to refer to the 
cordial relations that have existed, do exist and I have no 
doubt always will exist, between the workers at the two stations. 



SALMON HYBRIDIZATION 

By Prof. E. Victor Smith 
Of the University of Washington 

Some work has been done on hybridization among- the 
members of the family Salmonidse, particularly among the 
different species of the genus Salmo. The work has been 
carried on largely among the forms found in Europe and east- 
ern America. It is probable also that almost every hatchery 
superintendent in the country has yielded to curiosity and car- 
ried out with varying degrees of success experiments in cross 
fertilization of the different species spawnings at the same time 
in his territory. So that this paper has nothing to reveal that 
is new or startling-. It aims to record observations that the 
author has made on the offspring resulting from a reciprocal 
crossing- of the chinook salmon (Oncorhyiiehus tschawytscha) 
with the silver salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch). 

These crosses have been made in almost every hatchery on 
the coast, but in most instances careful observations have not 
been made, consequently many strange and erroneous ideas 
prevail among the men who have performed the experiments. 

Practically no observations have been made on the hybrid- 
ization of these salmon in the natural state. The adults of 
these species are readily distinguished and the very few taken 
that appear to fall between the two have been classified with the 
one or the other of these species and not as hybrids. 

The investigations to be described were carried on during 
the fall and winter of 1913-14 at the state hatchery near 
Auburn, Wash. The State Fish Commissioner, Mr. L. H. 
Darwin, kindly placed the equipment of the hatchery at my 
disposal. Owing to the distance of the hatchery from the uni- 
versity, personal observations were not made as frequently as 
desirable. 

The experiment was begun during the last week of Octo- 
ber when about 6,000 silver salmon eggs were fertilized with 
chinook salmon milt and about 4,000 chinook salmon eggs 
were fertilized with silver salmon milt. These figures are rela- 



72 Pacific Fisheries Society 

tive, as the eg^gs were measured and not counted. The eggs 
were placed in contiguous baskets in the same hatching trough, 
so that the conditions of water were practically identical. 

For the sake of convenient naming, the offspring of the 
female silver salmon and the male chinook salmon will be called 
silver hybrids and the reciprocal cross breeds will be called 
chinook hybrids. 

Consider first the observations made of the eggs spawned 
from the silver female. During the first five days 20 eggs 
were removed from the basket. These eggs showed no signs 
of development of the embryos having taken place, and were 
probably not fertilized. All the rest showed development. 
Thus, only one-third of one per cent of the eggs failed to be 
fertilized. The low temperature of the water at this season 
of the year retarded development so that the eggs were not dis- 
turbed again until the 27th of December, when 507 eggs were 
removed. Of these 55 were so overgrown with fungus that 
no observations as to the development of the embryos could 
be made. The remaining 452 showed dead embryos in various 
stages of development. Thus, during the sensitive period 
about 8.3 per cent of the embryos died. Between December 
27th and January 16th, 105 more dead embryos were removed, 
and on the latter date 57 more were taken from the basket. 
The 57 were near the hatching stage. The hatching period, 
which began about the middle of January, was much longer 
than that for the pure silvers. Between January 16th and 
March 2nd, 291 embryos died at the hatching stage and 127 
more died just after hatching. Up to this time 1,107 embryos 
died, or more than 18 per cent of the original number. After 
this the mortality was not significant and was confined largely 
to the abnormal forms, a considerable number of which de- 
veloped. 

The abnormalities began to develop shortly before the com- 
plete absorption of the yolk-sac. There were about 225 fish 
in which these peculiarities were pronounced. These fish were 
considerably longer than their fellows of the same age and 
developed remarkable strictures in dift"erent parts of the body. 
The most pronounced stricture and the one universally present 
was located just posterior to the opercula. This stricture gave 



First Annual Mccfino- 



73 



the fish the appearance of having a pronounced neck. In most 
cases the pectoral fins were more or less atrophied and were 
directed obliquely upward and backward. The head was bent 
downward and around the neck-like part was developed a collar 
of a silvery luster. The ends of this collar were not united on 
the dorsal side of the neck but came quite close together. The 
next place where another stricture most frequently occurred 
was between the anal and caudal fins, and this one usually in- 
volved the adipose fin. In extreme cases the tail seemed al- 
most severed from the body. The stricture of the caudal ex- 
tremity was frequently attended with modifications of the anal 
and caudal fins, the anal fin being atrophied and the base of the 
caudal being much narrowed. In a few specimens the dorsal 
fin was considerably reduced in size. Occasionally strictures 
occurred in other parts of the body, but were less pronounced. 
The more emaciated ones developed a decidedly lumpy condi- 
tion over the entire body. The stricture back of the opercula 
did not seriously involve the oesophagus yet the fish thus 
deformed took no food. They seemed incapable of co-ordinated 
movement and all their motions were erratic. When they set- 
tled on the bottom of the trough they always turned over on 
their sides. Those that were normal ate heartily and developed 
into as well favored and shapely fish as the pure silver or 
chinook. They were retained in the hatchery and fed until 
midsummer when they were turned into the river. 

The following illustrations represent clearly the malfor- 
mations of the Silver hybrids : 








74 Pacific Fisheries Society 

Consider next the observations made on the 4,000 eggs of 
the Chinook salmon which were fertihzed by the silver salmon 
milt. During the first five days 15 eggs, which showed no 
signs of having been fertilized, were removed from the basket. 
In this cross about the same per cent of eggs failed to show 
development as in the reciprocal cross. Between the 2nd of 
November and the 27th of December, 17 eggs were removed, 
all of which showed dead embryos in various stages of devel- 
opment. Between December 27th and January 16th, 80 more 
v.ere removed, the majority of which died during the last days 
of this period. Thus, during the early period of development 
within the egg. the mortality was much greater among the 
embryos of the silver mother than among those of the chinook 
mother. Between January 16th and March 2nd, 807 more 
dead embryos were removed, nearly all of which died during 
the hatching period. The most serious mortality took place 
while the fish were in the yolk-sac stages. Between March 
2nd and April 9th, 1,468 died, the majority of which had not 
absorbed the yolk. Up to the last date the total number of 
deaths was 2,387, or more than 59 per cent. 

The relation of the foregoing facts is brought out clearly 
in the following table : 

Of 6,000 Of 4,000 

Dead removed — Silver Per Chinook Per 

hybrids Cent hybrids Cent 

First four days "20 .3 15 .34 

Before hatching 669 11.1 97 2.4 

During hatching 291 4.85 807 20.2 

After hatching *127 2.1 1,468 36.7 

Total 1,107 18.4 2,387 59.7 

Among the chinook hybrids there were no cases of malfor- 
mation. A comparison of the external characteristics of both 
hybrids were made wnth the pure fry of the silver and chinook 
at the same stage of development. Twelve normal fish of each 
were taken at the time the yolk-sac was completely absorbed 
so far as could be determined by external observation. The 

* The few in excess of the 127 that died after hatching were almost 
all malformed. Of the 225 malformed fish the large majority were 
taken out alive. If all of these had died the total number of deaths 
after hatching would have been 352 mstead of 127. This would have 
increased the total number of deaths to 1,332, or a little over 22 per cent. 



First Annual Mcetino- 



75 



greatest length and depth of each fish were recorded, the length 
being measured from the tip of the snout to the base of the 
caudal fin ; the number of parr marks was counted on both right 
and left sides and count was also made of the number of rays 
in the anal fin of each, the short anterior rays being included 
in the count. 

The following tabulated statement gives a summary of 

these comparisons : 

Silver Chinook Silver Chinook 

hybrid hybrid 

Variation in length.. 24-30.3 mm 30.5-35.6 mm 30.3-32 mm 26-39 mm 

Average length 28 mm 32.5 mm 31.3 mm 34.3 mm 

Variation in great- 
est depth 5-7 mm 5.6-7 mm 6.3-7.3 mm 6-8.5 mm 

Average greatest 

length 6.3 mm 6.7 mm 6.8 mm 7.2 mm 

Variation in parr rt. It. rt. It. rt. It. rt It 

marks 7-9 6-9 9-13 9-12 8-12 9-12 9-13 8-13 

Average number of rt. It. rt. It. rt. It. rt. It 

parr marks 8 7.7 11.2 10.8 11.5 10.3 10.3 10.6 

Variation in num- 
ber of anal rays 15-17 19-20 16-18 13-14 

Average number of 

anal rays 16.3 19.6 17.2 15.2 

COMPARISON OF COLOR MARKINGS 

Silver Salmon. — The dorsal fin has a decidedly orange color, 
except along the anterior border, which is black. This border 
extends to the outer tip of the fin but gradually becomes less 
pronounced as the tip is neared. The caudal fin is of a 
deeper shade of orange than the dorsal, the color diminishing 
in intensity from the base distally. The inter-ray spaces are 
dotted with black while the rays are free from them. In 
color the anal fin is similar to the dorsal. The rays are without 
black dots while the inter-ray spaces are dotted with black 
but not so darkly as in the anal fin. Just anterior to this fin is 
an irregular green spot. The ventral fins are slightly tinged 
with orange and are without dots on either the rays or the 
inter-ray spaces. A still more delicate shade of orange tinges 
the pectoral fins, which are also entirely free from black dots. 
Excepting a narrow ventral band running longitudinally, the 
body is covered with irregularly polyhedral black dots ranging 
from .25 mm to .1 mm in diameter. There is a uniform grad- 
ation from the largest dots on the ventral side to the smallest 



76 Pacific Fisheries Society 

on the dorsal. On the back these black dots are very close 
together and form two narrow longitudinal black bands ex- 
tending from the head to the base of the tail. These bands are 
separated by a very narrow light line which is more pronounced 
in the silvers than in the chinooks. The parr marks are nar- 
rower than the interspaces and are divided into two almost 
equal parts by the lateral line. 

Chinook Sal»ioii. — The difference in color markings be- 
tween the chinook and silver fry is largely one of intensity. 
Scarcelv any of the orange color, which is so decided on the 
fins of the silver, is seen on those of the chinook. A slight 
tinge suft'uses the dorsal and caudal fins, scarcely a trace is 
seen on the anal, and the ventral and pectoral are without 
a trace. The dark shading on the dorsal and caudal fins re- 
sulting from the presence of the black dots is similar to that 
of the silver but less pronounced. Black dots so decided in 
the anal fin of the silver are entirely absent in that of the 
chinook. and the remaining fins are without color markings 
of any kind. The ventral area without black dots is consid- 
erably larger than in the silver and the rest of the body is of 
a lighter shade. The parr marks are broader than the inter- 
spaces. 

Sik'cr Hybrids. — In external features this hybrid resembles 
the maternal ancestor much more closely than it does the pater- 
nal. The coloration of the fins is quite similar to that of the 
pure silver, differing only in intensity. Of special interest is 
the resemblance of the anal fin to that of the pure silver in 
that the black dots are present on the inter-ray spaces of both 
silver and silver hybrid but entirely absent in the pure chinook. 
The color of the body is like that of the silver fry. Consid- 
erable variation is seen in the width of the parr marks.- In 
the majority of these hybrids the parr marks are narrower 
than the interspaces but in a number they were equal to or 
greater. The extremes of variation were not infrequently to 
be observed on the same fish. 

Chinook Hybrid. — This hybrid in its color markings lies 
between the silver hybrid and the pure chinook. Its fins are 
less deeply tinged with orange than the silver hybrid but more 



First Annual Mccthii^ 77 

deeply than the pure chinook. A few black dots are scattered 
over the anal fin, showing the influence of the paternal ancestor. 
A similar irregularity characterizes the width of the parr 
marks that was pointed out in the silver hybrids but the aver- 
age width of the marks is greater and a greater per cent of 
the hybrids have the parr marks wider than the interspaces. 

CONCLUSIONS 

In both crosses between silver and chinook salmon a very 
high percentage of the eggs are fertilized. In the experiments 
described over 99.5 per cent of the eggs showed development. 

The offspring of both crosses were very delicate in the 
early stages of development and the mortality was very high, 
being nearly 20 per cent of the silver hybrids and about 60 
per cent of the chinook. The mortality among the silver 
hybrids was highest before hatching and among the chinook 
during the yolk-sac stage. 

In time of development the hybrids followed the maternal 
ancestor, the silver hatching and developing earlier than the 
chinook. In external appearance the hybrids exhibit char- 
acteristics intermediate to those of the parents, but they re- 
semble the maternal ancestor much more closely than they do 
the paternal. 

The silver hybrids develop in many instances malforma- 
tions, as strictures in various parts of the body, which did not 
appear in the chinook hybrids. 

DISCUSSION 

President : Possibly there are others among the members here pres- 
ent who have had some experience in the line of hybridization, and 
if there is anything that anyone wishes to offer we should be glad to 
hear from him. 

Mr. Kinney: I would like to ask Professor Smith whether these 
experiments were both carried on at the same time? 

Prof. Smith : Both experiments were carried on at the same time, 
in the same trough, and with the same conditions of water. 

Mr. Kinney: One placed above the other? 

Prof. Smith : The water flowed directly from one basket to the 
other. 

President : Was there any chance of this malformation being due 
to bacteria? 

Prof. Smith : I haven't made a microscopic examination of the 
strictures. I intend to make that later, so I could not answer that 
question at present. 



78 Pacific FisJicrics Socictx 

IMr. O'M alley : In this connection I might state that during the fall 
of 1907 the Bureau of Fisheries conducted an experiment similar to 
that conducted and explained by Professor Smith, namely, a cross 
between the silver salmon female and the male chinook. 

Out of about 5,000 eggs collected, 3,500 were reared to good sized 
fish and they appeared at all times to be strong and healthy. A part 
of these were exhibited in a small aquarium with the Bureau's display 
of live fishes in Seattle at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. These 
fish were held until they were 12 or 14 inches in length and liberated 
into the Clackamas River, a tributary of the Columbia River. A year 
later an opportunity came to try the cross with chinook eggs and 
silver salmon male but in this case the resulting fish were not as 
healthy as in the former case. In both experiments deformities simi- 
lar to those described by Professor Smith occurred. 

A Member: Mr. Chairman, I was up at Reed College when the 
kings were coming out this year, and I noticed a number of them came 
head first out of the shell, and the others came out tail first. The 
gentleman at the hatchery told me that in general there was a greater 
number of malformations among those that came out head first than 
among those that came out tail first. 

Prof. Smith : From what I learned at the hatchery at Auburn the 
mortality was much greater among those that came out head first, 
but no observations were made as to the relative number of malforma- 
tions. 

President : Before we take up the matter of rearing and feeding of 
salmon fry, we have two other short papers which we would like to 
have read. Mr. Secrctarv, will vou read them for us? 



SAFEGUARDING THE SALMON 

By L. M. RICE 
(Read by Mr. John N. Cohl)) 

It is not necessary for me to point out how much depends 
on our efforts in educating the thinking people of Washington 
to the necessity of safeguarding the sahnon in the streams. 
We hatchery superintendents who have been long in the ser- 
vice notice the decreasing number of fish which each year come 
up to the spawning beds, a decrease due no doubt to the im- 
proved appliances of the fishermen, and we cannot fail to 
realize the need of appropriations for hatcheries and legis- 
lative protection for the fish. 

The day when natural spawning, with its accompanying 
waste of fish life, would supply the streams has passed. You 
well know how by artificial or hand-spawning the milt comes 
in direct contact with each and every egg, so that if performed 
by an experienced man all are fertilized and few, if any, are 
lost. I remember well how some years ago when I was sup- 
erintendent at Kalama, Mr. A. C. Little, then Fish Commis- 
sioner, impressed on the minds of all the men the wastefulness 
of natural spawning, which, in his opinion, was as old-fash- 
ioned as child-birth without a midwife. Each of the super- 
intendents was to watch and find where salmon were spawn- 
ing. We did so and dug up about one hundred eggs, of which 
an average of sixteen lived. I have always wondered how 
many of the sixteen were alive a week after they had moved 
out into the current. We must admit that the fry, held in the 
hatchery from one to three months, and until the sac is ab- 
sorbed, has much better prospect of life than has the natural 
egg in the spawning beds, with a chance of being covered too 
deeply, of being washed out by splash dams, and of being 
destroyed by other perils, of which the young salmon hatched 
the previous year is amongst the worst. This yearling, having 
attained the length of from four to six inches, develops quite 
an appetite for the small fry, and consumes them in large 
quantities until he takes his departure from the spawning 



80 Pacific Fisheries Socictx 

grounds about the first of June. But here again hatchery 
fry may receive protection, for we can hold them in the rear- 
ing pond until their hungry brothers have gone to sea. 

It would seem that the unlucky salmon need our assistance, 
not only at their spawning and in the first weeks thereafter, 
but also when they start down the river. What with the fish 
traps and nets, and the breaking of log jams with powder, 
these fish have a rough trip to the sea. Why does not our 
legislature require of loggers that they break their jams 
with the donkey engine? 

The very streams appear to conspire against the salmon. 
For illustration, I will, with your permission, refer to the region 
where I work — the upper Satsop country. Here there is a 
branch of the Satsop river known as the Martin or Middle 
East Branch, which being a swollen stream in the winter, 
induces large numbers of salmon to go there to spawn. But 
as the days grow warmer and the summer approaches the 
stream shrinks until there is a dry bed and the fish die. Count- 
less fish might be saved if the dry beds throughout the state 
were guarded by dams, so that eggs would not be spawned to 
die. 

DISCUSSION 

Prof. Smith : Did that paper say that the yearlings ate the ones 
that were turned loose? I just want to know that for my information. 

President : Mr. Rice is here and can probably give his views. 

Mr. Rice : Some of them are more than yearlings, and some of 
them are turned out under this. They will will eat young fry. They 
swallow them. 

President: The questions covered by this paper will largely be taken 
up when we come to the paper on the rearing of salmon. We will simply 
pass the discussion until after the reading of that paper. 



IMPROVEMENTS NECESSARY IN THE HATCHING OF 
SALMON 

By S. Butts 

Superintendent, Willapa Hatchery, Lebam, Wash. 

Being unable to attend your meeting, it gives me pleasure, 
however, to present some of my ideas on the artificial propa- 
gation of fish and the improvements that I think are neces- 
sary, some of which are now in use, but not generally so. 

We have in most of the coast streams of Washington and 
Oregon three distinct runs of fish, viz., the chinook salmon, 
the silver salmon and the steelhead trout. The first begin to 
ascend the various streams for spawning purposes about Sep- 
tember first ; the second, about November first, and the third 
about February first, the last continuing until about May 
tenth, which gives us upwards of eight months in which to take 
spawn, and, consequently, the same length of time in which 
to liberate the fry. 

Fry begin descending the streams at about four months of 
age. The smaller and weaker ones sometimes remain in fresh 
water until eight or nine months old. The stronger ones are 
descending the streams about the time we are liberating the 
fry of the second run, and both being of a cannibalistic nature, 
the elder devour the younger ones to an alarming extent. 
Thus the first liberated fry become the greatest menace to 
the industry. 

Of course, there are always trout and other small fish in 
our salmon streams, but not in such numbers as the older 
salmon fry. 

The same thing happens when we are liberating the fry of 
the third run ; those of the second run are descending the 
streams and gorge themselves on the younger ones. 

To obviate this great destruction, we should have retaining 
ponds to rear them in and feed them until they are four or 
five months old. The erection of the ponds might mean the 
expenditure of considerable money, but I think it would be 
economical in the lonp- run. 



82 Pacific Fisheries Society 

One other improvement I would suggest is the erection of 
an ice plant at one or more of the larger hatcheries, so that any 
of the smaller ones could be furnished with ice when necessary, 
as the weather is warm in September, and some of the hatch- 
eries are so located that the fishing grounds are quite a dis- 
tance from the plant. They should have boxes to carry the 
spawn in from the grounds to the plant, and so arranged as to 
keep the spawn both cool and damp. It is sometimes neces- 
sary to use ice in the lead trough in order to keep the tempera- 
ture below fifty degrees. 

I have had the temperature to reach sixty degrees at this 
plant and the fry to hatch in twenty-seven days. These fry 
were premature and the mortality was more than double what 
it should have been. 

DISCUSSION 

President: That paper too goes into the subject of a retaining pond, 
and we might as well have all the papers on that subject, and then have 
a general discussion. The Pacific Fisherman started this discussion by 
asking for opinions from the various Commissions on the rearing and 
feeding of salmon fry, and we have a statement from Dr. Smith in a 
letter to the Pacific Fisherman in which he outlines briefly the policy of 
the Bureau of Fisheries to retain the fry and feed them until they 
reach the fingerling length, and after that we have a statement from Mr. 
O'Malley. 

Mr. O'Malley : In this connection I have to say that for many years 
on this coast we have taken care of our fry until up to the time of the 
absorption of the yolk sac, then, as a rule, on acocunt of limited funds, 
and really at a time when they need the greatest care, we have been 
obliged to liberate them, to be preyed upon by their various enemies. 
Baker Lake, Washington, is an example, where the destruction of fry 
from Dolly Varden trout is the worst of any place that has come under 
my personal observation, and is the more to be regretted as it is the 
only source of supply of sockeyes to Puget Sound within the United 
States. 

Dr. Smith has adopted the policy in California. Oregon, Washing- 
ton, and also in Alaska, I believe, to construct suitable rearing ponds 
at each station to care for as many fry up to the fingerling stage as 
funds will permit. 

This year, at the Bureau's stations tributary to the Columbia. Clack- 
amas, Little and Big White Salmon stations, feeding operations were 
conducted and between two and three million fish were fed until they 
reached the age of fingerlings No. 2^/^. Food in sufficient quantity and 
at a reasonable cost has been a serious question for many years, but this 
is now being taken care of by using Columbia River smelt. These are 
purchased at a cost of $20.00 per ton f. o. b. the cold storage plants. 
A charge of $20.00 for the season is paid for freezing and holding, thus 
the cost of fish food the past season was about 2^ cents per pound, 
delivered at the hatcheries. This food is prepared by first cooking it until 



First Annual Meeting 83 

all bones are softened, then it is pressed into cakes with a press not 
unlike the old fashioned cider press. Large quantities can be prepared at 
one time and will keep a long time if held in a dry, cool place. When 
needed for food, it is grated to the desired size, depending on the age of 
the fry to be fed. The grating machine is of home made construction 
and run by power and will grate the food very rapidly. This class of 
food was used at all our stations the past season after the fish were 
feeding in good shape, they being first started on liver, and later mush 
was added, liver being too expensive for extensive use, as it cost 9 cents 
and 5 cents per pound for beef and hog liver each, respectively, f. o. b. 
Portland, Ore. We have also used canned culled salmon in conjunction 
with other food and when properly prepared this gives good results. 
In all cases with us the mixed diet has given the best results. 

President: In California we have had in years past considerable 
experience with holding and feeding salmon fry, and this work was 
at that time in charge of Mr. W. H. Shebley, who has prepared a 
paper which he sent to the Pacific Fisherman, and I would be glad to 
have him read it and tell us what he knows about the feeding of fry. 



REARING AND FEEDING SALMON FRY IN CALIFORNIA 

By W. H. Shebley 
California Superintendent of Hatcheries. 

The first salmon fry fed in California was after the estab- 
lishing- of the Sisson Hatchery in 1888. The United States 
Commission of Fish and Fisheries in 1883 quit operations at 
Baird Hatchery on the McCloud River. Only 1,000,000 eg-gs 
had been taken that season. The salmon had greatly decreased 
in the Sacramento river, owing to the operations of the mines 
on the tributary rivers destroying the spawning beds, and the 
unrestricted fishing on the lower reaches of the river, as well as 
the wholesale slaughter of the breeding fish by miners, Indians 
and others during the period that they were entering the tribu- 
tary streams to spawn. 

In 1883 the United States Commission collected approxi- 
mately 1,000,000 of eggs at the Baird Hatchery during the en- 
tire season, this being the smallest take in the history of the 
work on the McCloud river since the preliminary work of 
establishing the station in 1872, when the first attempt at the 
propagation of the Pacific salmon was made by Dr. Livingston 
Stone. The salmon, although greatly depleted in numbers in 
the Sacramento river, had ascended as far as Baird in numbers 
sufificient to give from 2,000,000 to 14,000,000 eggs each season 
from 1872 to 1883. The latter year the salmon in the Sacra- 
mento river seemed doomed to extinction. The falling off this 
year was due largely to the heavy blasting and other operations 
on the line of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which was then 
being constructed from Redding northward along the banks of 
the Sacramento river to the mouth of the Pitt river, into which 
the McCloud river flows. The salmon were undoubtedly fright- 
ened so that they did not ascend the Sacramento river, besides 
a great many were taken and destroyed by the grading gangs 
and used in the camps for food. Thousands of trout and sal- 
mon were destroyed by powder used by the Chinese and white 
laborers, of whom there were 9,000 camped along the river ; and 
while a great many were used as food, there was wanton de- 



86 Pacific Fisheries Society 

struction in the way they were killed. The same condition ex- 
isted in 1884, and Superintendent Stone of the Baird Hatchery 
recommended that the station be not operated that season. It 
remained closed from that date until 1888, the year that the 
Sisson Hatchery was established by the California Fish Com- 
mission in an attempt to restore the salmon run in the Sacra- 
mento river. 

In 1885 the California Commission decided to establish a 
hatchery for the propagation of salmon, as the federal g-overn- 
ment had not again resumed operations at Baird. It was de- 
cided to establish a hatchery and an egg-collecting station on 
Hat creek, a large tributary of the Pitt river, where salmon 
formerly abounded by the thousands during the spawning sea- 
son. This station was operated for two seasons. The writer 
was in charge of the work during the last season this station 
was operated. The work of collecting the eggs was begun 
early in August and continued until November. Less than 500, 
000 eggs were collected as the result of the season's work. The 
spawning beds in Pitt river and Hat creek that a few years be- 
fore had been covered with salmon were now deserted. In the 
spring of 1888 recommendations were made to the Board of 
Fish Commissioners and to the governor of the state to aband- 
on the hatchery or close it down for a number of years, and 
that a station be established lower down the Pitt river or on the 
main Sacramento river in an endeavor to collect the eggs from 
the few remaining salmon that ascended the Sacramento to the 
spawning grounds. It was demonstrated beyond any doubt 
during the two seasons that the Hat Creek Hatchery was oper- 
ated that the spawning salmon that remained did not reach Hat 
creek nor Pitt river near its confluence with Hat creek in 
numbers sufficient to justify further operations. It was evi- 
dent to the writer and others who made a study of conditions 
regarding the spawning salmon that, owing to the greatly di- 
minished number of fish that ascended the Sacramento river, 
ample spawning beds were found by the fish lower down 
and that only a few stragglers ascended Pitt river and its trib- 
utaries. Acting under the recommendations of the writer, the 
Board of Fish Commissioners ordered the Hat creek station 
closed and began to look for another site. 



First Annual Meeting 87 

After a thorough examination and study of the different 
streams by J. G. Woodbury, the newly appointed superintend- 
ent of hatcheries, it was decided to locate a salmon hatchery on 
Spring creek in Siskiyou county, near the town of Sisson. In 
the meantime arrangements had been made with the United 
States Commission to open up the Baird hatchery, collect the 
eggs at that station and ship them to Sisson, where they could 
be hatched and the fry reared and fed until they were large 
enough to liberate in the tributaries of the upper reaches of the 
Sacramento river. This location and plan of hatching and dis- 
tributing the salmon fry was concurred in by Mr. Woodbury, 
representing the California Fish Commission, and Mr. Liv- 
ingston Stone, the superintendent of Baird hatchery. Mr. 
Woodbury had been Mr. Stone's assistant at Baird during 
the time of the establishment of the Baird station, and no 
better authorities on salmon culture could be found, and to 
this day no marked improvement over their ideas and work 
has ever been advanced. The writer had personal knowledge of 
their plans and consulted and worked with both gentlemen. 

The Sisson hatchery was completed and ready for opera- 
tion in September, 1888. The floods did not interfere with the 
work and Mr. Stone operated until late in November. Eight 
hundred thousand eggs were collected from the early fall run, 
and 2,200,000 from the October and November, or late fall run. 
These eggs were hatched and the fry fed until they were large 
enough to care for themselves and then carefully distributed in 
the upper reaches of the Sacramento river and its tributaries. 
The work of feeding the fry was continued until 1895, when 
it was discontinued by the Board of Fish Commissioners, as 
a matter of economy, and because of a wrong idea that had 
been advanced by those who were dictating the policy of 
fish cultural operations in California, that the salmon fry were 
better off if distributed as soon as the umbilical sac was ab- 
sorbed. The benefit of feeding the fry was plainly demon- 
strated by the great increase of salmon in the Sacramento 
river in the years that followed the return of the output of fry 
from 1888 to 1896. In 1896 27,000,000 eggs were collected at 
Battle creek station, a few miles below the mouth of the Mc- 
Cloud river, and 7,000,000 at Baird station from the McCloud 



88 Pacific Fisheries Society 

river. During these years a better and more efficient patrol of 
the bays and rivers was made during the closed season than 
formerly ; the laws regarding- the legal size of nets used in fish- 
ing were enforced, while the Saturday-Simday non-fishing law 
was enforced strictly. This insurctl a larger number of breeding 
salmon for the egg-collecting stations. These regulations and 
the feeding of the salmon fry during the period from 1888 to 
1896 were, in my opinion, the principal agents in restoring the 
salmon to the Sacramento river. 

After the appointment of the present Board of Fish and 
Game Commissioners, during the summer of 1911, and the reor- 
ganization of the Department of Hatcheries, it was decided to 
again hold and feed the salmon fry until they were large enough 
to care for themselves when they were distributed, as well as to 
hold a large number of them in the ponds of the Sisson hatchery 
until fall, and then release them in the upper reaches of the Sac- 
ramento river during the early fall, before the winter floods. 
This method of handling the salmon fry will give them a chance 
to reach the ocean at an age when they can protect themselves 
from the predaceous spiny-rayed fishes that inhabit the lower 
reaches of the Sacramento river and Suisun, San Pablo and 
San Francisco bays, through which they must pass before they 
reach the ocean. During the season of 1913 three-fourths of 
a million fry were held in ponds at the Sisson Hatchery and 
released during October. This season 21.000,000 salmon fry 
were held in the troughs, nurseries and ponds and fed until 
late in the spring. Of this number 2.000.000 were distrib- 
uted by the California Fish and Game Commission's distri- 
buting car in the lower reaches of the Sacramento river, near 
Walnut Grove and Benicia. Four million were placed in the 
large ponds at the Sisson Hatchery, in perfect condition, where 
they are fed daily and looked after by a skilled fish culturist. 
The remainder were distributed in the tributary streams of the 
upper Sacramento river. Those placed in the ponds will be 
released during the early fall, so that they can descend the river 
slowly and reach the lower reaches of the river and the bays 
at a time when the spiny-rayed fishes are not so active as they 
are during the summer months. After the temperature of the 
river falls the bass and other predaceous fishes are not so ac- 



First Annual Meeting 89 

tive in the pursuit of food, and the salmon fry will reach the 
ocean with less loss than if they are released in the spring or 
summer. 

The Fish and Game Commission of the state of California 
is now preparing- one of the largest and best pond systems in 
the country for the rearing of salmon fry. Plans are being 
made to construct enough ponds to hold 10,000,000 salmon fry 
next season. 

The fry at the Sisson Hatchery are first held and fed in the 
troughs about two montiis before they are removed to the 
ponds. Then they are taken out in small lots and fed until 
all are accustomed to the new surroundings. The pond keeper 
distributes the food slowly at the different feeding stations in 
the ponds until he is satisfied that all the fry have received 
their share of food. By this method the fry all have the same 
development and growth and there is no danger of develop- 
ing a lot of precocious fry to exercise their cannibalistic 
instincts on the others. During the first cold weather in the 
fall the fry are ready to be liberated. They are then in readi- 
ness for their trip to the ocean at a time when there is no 
danger of their being carried into the over-flow basins, when 
many of the predaceous fishes have lost their activity, and 
when the salmon fry are large enough, and conditions of 
weather and water are such that they will not linger long 
in the lower reaches of the Sacramento river and bays, but will 
descend to the ocean with less loss and in better condition than 
if handled in any other way. 

The large island district in the lower Sacramento river, 
and the bays through which it flows before reaching the ocean, 
makes the propagation of the salmon a different problem than 
in any other stream on the Pacific Coast. If it were not for 
the conditions above mentioned, the fry could be hatched and 
distributed nearer the ocean, but on account of the large bodies 
of water inhabited by predaceous fishes at the mouth of the 
Sacramento river it is necessary to hold the fish as long as 
possible near the upper reaches of the river and release them at 
a time when they will make the journey to the ocean in the 
shortest time possible if the best results are to be obtained. 

President: We have another letter here from Mr. R. E. Clanton, 



90 Pacific Fisheries Society 

Superintendent of Hatcheries of Oregon, and I think that we should 
incorporate that in the record of our proceedings. I think that I have 
been told by Mr. Cobb that a number of the gentlemen here have al- 
ready read that. There are a number of us, as I have stated on several 
occasions, that are anxious to leave to catch a train, and for that reason 
I think that what discussion we have to make on this subject would 
better start in right now and I would like to hear from anyone of 
the hatchery men here of their views on the subject of holding the fry 
and feeding them until they reach the fingerling stage. 



REARING AND FEEDING SALMON FRY IN OREGON 

By R. E. Clanton 
Oregon Superintendent of Hatcheries. 

At the Bonneville Central Station we have thirty retaining 
ponds in which we are now holding 12,000,000 chinook sal- 
mon. These ponds cover an area of between four and five 
acres. In addition to these, we have just completed a system 
of creek or natural ponds, which were made in the bed of the 
creek, having changed the channel by diverting the water 
through same and bringing these ponds under control. Our 
capacity for holding and feeding- the fry at this station until 
they are from four to eight months old will be approximately 
15,000,000. 

At the Klaskanine Hatchery we have at the present time 
approximately 3,000,000 chinook salmon, having recently lib- 
erated 1,000,000 of the older fish. We have at this station six 
large artificial ponds covering an area of about one acre. In 
addition thereto, we have a number of natural ponds made by 
changing the channel of the river and placing same under con- 
trol. The feeding capacity of this station is approximately 
4,000,000 fry. 

At the McKenzie River Hatchery we have six small and 
three large ponds, covering an area of about two acres. Most 
of the spawn taken at this station was shipped to the Bonne- 
ville Central Hatchery, retaining only 200,000 fry, which are 
now being held. The feeding capacity of this station is ap- 
proximately 2,000,000 fish. 

The above mentioned hatcheries are located on tributaries 
of the Columbia river, and in addition thereto, we have six 
hatcheries located on the various coast streams which debouch 
into the ocean south of the Columbia River in this state, and at 
these stations 8,569,575 fish are being fed, making the total 
number of fish being fed and cared for by the department 23,- 
769,575. 

In giving the capacity of the different stations, it must be 
understood that this applies only to retaining and feeding the 



92 Pacific Fisheries Society 

fry. Should the capacity be based upon the old system, whereby 
the greater per cent of the fish were liberated as soon as hatched 
from the egg, and the balance turned out when the yolk sac 
was absorbed, the capacity of the different hatcheries of our 
department would be approximately 100,000,000, as it will be 
seen that the main building of the Bonneville Hatchery alone is 
60 feet wide by 226 feet long, while there are three auxiliary 
hatcheries there that are 20 feet wide by 100 feet long, all 
equipped with modern hatching troughs. 

Three years ago this department adopted a policy of retain- 
ing and feeding, for at least a period of time, all the fry possible 
at the various stations throughout the state, and as a result of 
extensive and thorough experiments which have been conducted 
at the various State plants, an effort to systematize the pond 
arrangement in order to secure the best possible results with 
the fish has since been carried on. 

We have found that the so-called creek or natural ponds, 
which are made by placing dams across the small streams in the 
vicinity of the hatcheries, afford the most natural conditions 
for the young fish. When the fish are large enough to be taken 
from the hatching troughs, we have found it necessary to 
transfer and hold them in the artificial or cement ponds, where 
the water flow is under complete control, and which are so con- 
structed that their sanitation can be properly attended to by 
seining the fish to one end while the other is being cleaned 
and vice versa. It has been found necessary to exercise extreme 
care at all times to insure perfect sanitation of these ponds. 
When the danger of the spring freshets is past and the water in 
the creek or natural ponds is under control, it has been found 
advisable to transfer the fry to these ponds, where the continual 
flow of fresh water, and the logs, rocks, etc., which provide 
shade and shelter, afford more natural conditions. In addition 
to the artificial food which is given to these fish, they are en- 
abled to secure a certain amount of food which nature has pro- 
vided for them. 

Acting under instructions, the superintendents of the dift'er- 
ent hatcheries have given the subject of aeration close attention, 
and it is the concensus of opinion that some parts of the arti- 
ficial ponds should be agitated to promote the proper circulation 



First Annual Meeting 93 

of air, while other parts of the ponds should not be disturbed so 
as to provide still water for the fish. While we have, no doubt, 
made some important discoveries in connection with our pond 
work, we are still carrying on investigations along these lines 
and hope to arrive at a definite solution of the question which 
is of the greatest importance to the success of the system of 
retaining and feeding young fish. 

In our efforts to determine upon a scientific and systematic 
method of feeding the young fish in the troughs and nursery 
ponds in order to secure the best results at a minimum ex- 
pense, we have conducted a series of practical experiments at 
all of the hatcheries, and although we have made some valuable 
discoveries and rapid strides of improvement over previous 
methods, we are continuing our experiments unceasingly in the 
hope of reducing the cost to the greatest degree of economy 
consistent with the highest degree of health and development 
of the young fish. So far, our experience has led us to believe 
that young fry in the early stages of development thrive better 
upon liver, as this can be ground finer than other foods, and the 
blood which it contains is highly nutritious. At some of the 
stations, however, we have been unable to secure a sufficient 
supply of liver, owing to the remoteness of the hatcheries, and in 
such instances have substituted a mixture of grround dried sal- 
mon and mush (composed of middlings and other wheat pro- 
duct) which has proven a very satisfactory article of diet for 
extremely young fry. At one of the coast hatcheries, milk curd 
which was s.ecured from nearby creameries, was also fed to 
them with satisfactory results. As the fish grew older we fed 
them on ground smelt, lamprey eels, spent salmon, both dried 
and salted, and offal from the canneries. 

The cheapness of this food has made it possible to retain and 
feed great numbers of fry with the funds available, which we 
could not have done had we been compelled to feed liver alone, 
as the cost of the latter is many times greater. 

At some of the stations the different foods are prepared by 
cooking before being ground and fed. Other superintendents 
have had equally good success by feeding raw foods. Our ex- 
perience has taught us that it is absolutely necessary that the 
quality of food should be fresh and absolutely free from taint 



94 Pacific Fisheries Society 

and that due care should be exercised in all cases to insure this 
condition before utilizing- the food. When any of this food is 
found to be tainted and unfit for use, however, it is placed in the 
maggoty and converted into fly larvae and fed in this stage. In 
this way we have found it possible to utilize every part of the 
food shipped to the hatcheries. 

I have not the time to prepare a statement of the amount 
of food fed last year, but will give you, from our report, the 
figures showing the total amount of the previous season, which 
was 50 tons of smelt, 27 tons of eels, 15 tons of wheat products, 
8 tons of salmon offal, fresh from the canneries ; 5 tons of sal- 
mon offal, canned in one gallon cans ; 15 tons of liver, 4 tons of 
salmon offal, salted ; 10 tons of dried spawned-out salmon ; 10 
tons of fresh spawned-out salmon ; 5 tons of milk curd, and one 
ton of salted spawned-out salmon; making a tota.1 of 150 tons, 
or 300,000 pounds, of food at the different stations, which ag- 
gregated in cost $3,400. The amount fed last year and that 
which will be fed during this season will be a great deal more 
than the figures given. 



FEEDING SALMON FRY 

By M. J. Kinney 
Member Oregon Fish and Game Commission 

The Fish Commissioners are responsible for the work done 
at the different hatcheries, and I beHeve it is their duty to 
know something about fish culture ; at least, as much as bank 
commissioners should know about the banking business, in 
order to check up the work and estimate the efficiency of the 
different hatcheries. Systematic and painstaking- reports are 
necessary, and to carry this out, in 1911 the Oregon Commis- 
sion sent to each hatchery thermometers for water and for air, 
scales to weigh the food, and fine balances, with globes to hold 
water, in which to weigh the fish ; kodaks and plain loggers' 
leveling instruments, with tape, staff, etc., and as complete 
literature as we could secure on fish culture. Carefully pre- 
pared blanks, to be worked out once each month, giving the 
hourly flow of water for each pond, amount of food fed each 
pond, number of fish in each pond, and weight of the fish on 
the first of each month, temperature of the water and tempera- 
ture of the air, for the monthly reports, and if any fish are lib- 
erated, the date and weight of same. If these records are 
carefully kept it enables the commission to keep an eye on the 
work and estimate the value of the output. 

It matters little to me whether these men are working six 
or ten hours per day. The true value of results is what I want, 
and I should prefer that the superintendents put in less time on 
manual labor and more time in studying the fish and studying 
nature, as the closer we get to nature the better for the fish. 

I advocate that our commission shall pay a liberal reward 
for the best pond or ponds of 250,000 fingerlings and measure 
the value of each station by results. This will stimulate the 
superintendents and feeders to do better work. Auditing the 
books once a year is worth nothing to me unless the fish are 
audited. In checking up the working of a sawmill it is neces- 
sary to have a careful inventory of the quantity and value of 
the output. A healthy fish of 100 grains is worth far more 



96 Pacific Fisheries Society 

than one of ten grains. Spring fish, when caught, are worth 
four times as much as fall fish. 

In checking pond work I find three important factors : The 
daily rations of food for each 100 pounds of fish, the quantity 
of pure running water per hour in each pond for each 100 
pounds of fish, and a liberal amount of shade and ripples and 
cleanliness are absolutely necessary. Our ponds at Klaskanine 
have made the best records for 1912 and 1913, pond No. 6 and 
creek ponds. The fish were kept in the first pond until they 
reached 25 grains, then turned into creek ponds where they 
had plenty of green trees for shade and ripples to play in, were 
fed daily three to four pounds per each 100 pounds of fish, 
mainly fish food, the fresher the better, and had a water supply 
of 300 to 400 cubic feet of running water per hour the last 
month for each 100 pounds of fish. In 1912 the fish weighed 
143 grains on July 1st, under Mr. Hatton, the superintendent. 
In 1913 they weighed 130 grains July 1st, practically the same, 
under Mr. Freeman, the superintendent. In 1914 they are 
doing well, weighing 140 grains on July 1st. 

The best record at Bonneville for 1914 is pond No. 14, 
which has 300 to 400 cubic feet of pure fresh water per hour 
per each 100 pounds of fish per day. These fish weighed 70 
grains average on May 5th, when they were transferred to the 
creek pond and mixed with smaller fish, but unfortunately I am 
not able to furnish a further report of this pond. Fish in other 
ponds, with less fresh water and less food supply, did not grow 
so fast. We have squandered a great deal of money in locat- 
ing hatcheries without looking for an abundant supply of water ; 
same as building an old fashioned flouring mill without looking 
for an adequate supply of water to turn the wheels. 

I have asked our wardens to catch the native fish in the dif- 
ferent streams and send them to the laboratory so that we could 
secure the weight and length and age of these fish for compari- 
son with our pond fish. Our ponds must do as good work as 
the native fish, otherwise they are not doing standard work. 
And to note the time and condition that the native fish migrate 
to the sea. 

There are many phases in the successful management of the 
fish business yet to be worked out. We are trying to establish 



First Annual Mcetini^ 97 

some records of expectancy. How many fish we should expect 
to return from the sea for each million well developed finger- 
lings of 100 grains weight that we liberate, and whether 
marked fish from four years' parentage and of a May run will 
return in May four years hence. These and many such ques- 
tions we must work out for a forecast record before we can 
intelligently carry on this work. 

Commercially, one spring salmon is worth more than four 
fall salmon, and I do not favor propagating any of the second 
or fourth class fish. Raising salmon and trout is much like 
raising stock, a liberal supply of pure, fresh water, pure, fresh 
air and good food and cleanliness are absolutely necessary, and 
in many things you should manage your hatchery the same as 
you would run a stock farm. No good stock farmer would fill 
his best pasture with fourth class stock, and I object to liberat- 
ing anything in the Columbia River excepting standard quality 
spring chinook fingerlings. 

DISCUSSION 

Mr. Darwin : I would state that the rearing pond capacity of the 
State of Washington is as follows : 

Kalama Hatcherv 2,000,000 

Chinook 1,000,000 

Samish 350,000 

Willapa 100,000 

Chehalis 80,000 

Dungeness 250,000 

White River 300,000 

Nooksack 250,000 

Snohomish 400,000 

Stillaguamish 150,000 

Wind River 50,000 

The other salmon hatcheries in the State are without rearing ponds. 

President : I would like to hear from some of the men from Alaska 
to see what their experience has been. Mr. Henkel will you favor us 
with some suggestions on this subject? 

Mr. Henkel: In regard to the fry we are speaking of, I have had 
no experience in Alaska as to the feeding of fry, but I have had ex- 
perience in planting fry there, and I would state that the worst enemy 
we have is the Dolly Varden trout. On several occasions I have ex- 
perimented in the planting of fry and also experimented in the number 
of fry that a trout would eat in a certain length of time, and I found in 
a Dolly Varden trout not six inches in length 125 fry. I also found 
that they would digest the fry in a little less than two and a half hours, 
so taking into consideration the number of meals they have each day on 
fry, you can readily figure out the number of fry they would consume in 
a given length of time. I think that more work should be put in on the 
extermination of the Dolly Varden trout rather than the protecting of 



98 Pacific Fisheries Society 

them, and I am sorry to say that several of the states on the Pacific 
Coast protect them. A friend at Kodiak, Alaska, a resident of San 
Francisco, requested me to salt some as he wished to take them out with 
him. I salted two small butter barrels of the trout, and took them to 
Kodiak, where he carried them on the boat to take with him. When he 
landed in San Francisco they arrested him for bringing in game fish. 
I think if that law were done away with, so that the people of Alaska 
could salt and ship the trout into the states, there would be a demand for 
them and a market created in a short time. I have kept trout through- 
out the year by mild salting, and had them on the table at all times dur- 
ing this period. The salt is very easily soaked out, and by soaking them 
over night in fresh water one can have fresh Dolly Varden trout for 
breakfast. 

President : With reference to Mr. Henkel's statement concerning his 
friend being arrested in San Francisco. I wish to set the California Com- 
mission right on that subject. They did bring the frozen Dolly Varden 
trout to San Francisco, and it was against one of the laws on the books 
at that time to have any trout in one's possession during the closed 
season, and this was the closed season. The gentleman came to our 
office and we told him we would assist him in every way possible, but 
that bringing in the trout was a violation of the law, and of course we 
could not give him permission to violate the law, that our duty was to 
enforce the law. We told him to make a test case and that we would not 
fight it very hard ; the matter was dropped and drifted along, and I 
really don't know what became of it. We told him he had no right 
under the present law to bring in the trout, but that if he would pre- 
pare a bill to be presented at the next session of the legislature, which 
was to meet in about a month from that time, that we would do all we 
could to see that it was passed. When the legislature met I took the 
matter up with his attorney and told him that we were now ready to 
present his bill, but he said he did not care to have it presented. I do 
not know his reason, he told me it was a matter of indifiference to him, 
that he did not care anything about it. Evidently he has made up his 
mind not to bring the Dolly Varden trout down from Alaska. 

Mr. O'Malley (as presiding officer) : Is there any further dis- 
cussion on the papers before us? We have heard from several people, 
may we not have a few remarks from Mr. Darwin. 

Mr. Darwin : I think you can appreciate that I am here at this meet- 
ing to learn, and I am quite sure that any remarks I might oflfer would 
be properly discounted by those who have had a great deal of experience 
in fish culture work. I thank you very much, but I am here to learn 
and observe, and I should very much like to hear from the others. 

Mr. Fraser : Mr. Chairman, with regard to your own remarks con- 
cerning the feeding of fry, I might say that in examining the food they 
take in I have concluded' that they eat almost everything swallowable. 
Their main diet consists of crustaceans — either small species or larval 
forms — but these are of great variety; several different kinds may be 
found in the stomach at one time. Insects, insect larvae, rotifers, 
protozoa, eggs and even crustacean sloughs are swallowed, although in 
the sloughs at least there can not be much nourishment. I should think, 
therefore, that it would help a great deal to have a range of diet rather 
than to have any one thing without change. 

Prof. Smith : One question that has arisen in my mind : in turning 
out a large number of salmon in the streams — millions of them — how are 
these streams supplied with food to take care of those salmon between 



First Annual Meeting 99 

the time they leave the hatchery until the time they arrive in the ocean? 
I do not wonder very much at cannibalism among them under the condi- 
tions, because I fancy — and that is what I would like to ask if anyone 
knows about it — that there is insufficient life to supply food for the fish 
you are going to turn out between the time they are turned loose and 
the time they get to the ocean. It is going to require a tremendous 
amount of food to satisfy them. 

Mr. Henkel: I will say that I have not been here in the states long 
enough to know what the food is in these waters, but in our observation 
of the blueback in Alaska waters, we find the waters of the lake have 
plenty of minute animal life for the fry to subsist on. During the period 
of two years' sojourn in the lake, we have time after time dragged the 
lake with small seines and found plenty of crustaceans there for the 
small fry. We found that the blueback do not enter any streams ex- 
cept those that have lakes at the head of them, and our observation is 
that they stay in the lake two years before going to the ocean. 

Mr. O'Mallev : In connection with liberating young salmon, I want 
to bring to the attention of this society a method used by the Japanese 
in Northern Japan. One of their fish culturists visited Clackamas sta- 
tion several years ago and while there we were discussing the different 
methods in use. The hatchery at the time was filled to its capacity with 
fry at the age of the absorption of the yolk sac. I asked what time in 
Japan they liberated their young salmon. He replied, "When about this 
age (absorption of yolk sac) we place them in a pond or lake, leaving 
as it were the door open, and the fry are free to go when they choose, 
necessary food being provided while they remain in the lake." Each year, 
he stated, they left about the same time, some going early and stragglers 
remaining late, but the bulk all went inside of thirty days. I considered 
at the time that they had a pretty good method of liberating their fry, 
because at the present time the vital question for the salmon culturist 
is to know the proper time to liberate his fish. This is a question upon 
which the scientist can give us valuable assistance. 

Mr. Mahone : I have been observing for the last two years a little 
slough near our hatchery at Quilcene. Last year there were several 
thousand fish in the early part of the season. The water is not very deep 
and there is a good deal of vegetation there. There were two distinct 
schools of fish. One was below where our flume crosses the slough 
that I estimated at one to two thousand. They seemed to all go away 
together. The fish stayed in the slough until they were five to six inches 
long. The last spring or late summer, I think February or March, the 
fish disappeared ; I do not know what became of them. Above the flume 
there was another school, I could not estimate very well, but I think 
two or three thousand fish at least. They have all disappeared. This 
year there is a good deal of water. It is fed by springs, and also the 
hatchery water and the overflow of the hatchery comes out into this 
slough. We planted, perhaps, during the season a couple of hundred 
thousand fish in that little slough. They were away from other fish 
and could not be devoured by them in the slough, and you will find to- 
day several thousand fish both from one and a half to four inches long, 
and the fish look healthy and good. Some gentleman here referred to 
the fact of eating the old salmon. There were two or three old salmon 
that died in the slough, and during the time of disintegration thousands of 
fish gathered around and cleaned up every bit of the fish except the 
bones. There must have been a good deal of food in this slough, for 
the fish seemed to be doing well. Regarding food in the river, from ob- 
servations I have made from time to time I notice little fish all up and 



100 Pacific Fisheries Society 

down the river in little pools, and I have been led to believe that there 
is much food in the rivers, particularly in the Big Quilcene River. The 
fish seem to be in good condition, evidently are getting plenty to eat, 
because when we feed fish at all if they do not get enough you can read- 
ily distinguish the fact from the big heads and small bodies. I am 
clearly of the opinion that they get a great deal of food from the rivers. 

Another point that came up in our community last spring, that the 
papers commented on somewhat, and which for a time it was a little 
hard to tell just what the cause was; some discussion that occurred 
here yesterday brought the matter to my mind. During quite a storm 
down the bay one day there were thousands of fish, young salmon, so 
reported, found on the shores of the bay ; they were all dead and 
crows came and ate them. These fish still had food sacs. Now, the 
question is, where did they come from ? Some supposed they had 
come from the hatchery, but none of the fish we had planted within 
a good many weeks of the time of this occurrence had food sacs, these 
having been completely absorbed. After studying the matter over, I 
concluded they had been washed out of the river with the gravel by 
the floods, and into the bay, and the salt water killed them, the wind 
washing them up on the shore. 

Now comes the question brought out by some discussion here — 
whether fish being put into salt water, in the sac stage, would they 
live under such conditions. 

Mr. Fraser : With regard to the growth of salmon in salt water, 
I have seen large numbers of dog salmon in the sea with a great por- 
tion of the yolk still unabsorbed and they seemed to thrive very well. 
I do not know if it is true concerning other species. 

Just another point with regard to the amount of food in the fresh 
water. It has been shown very distinctly that fish do not grow as 
rapidly in fresh water as in sea water. The growth of the scales give 
a good index of this. In the case of all the salmon and trout that 
spend a portion of their lives in the sea and the remainder in the fresh 
water, the scales show the more rapid growth in the sea, as the spaces 
between the rings are wider than when the fish are in the rivers. Hence, 
although they may get enough food in fresh water to continue their 
existence, they do not get enough to grow as they would in the sea. 



LIST OF MEMBERS, 1914-1915 



HONORARY MEMBERS. 

The President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson. 
The Governors of certain States : 

Washington, Ernest Lister. 

Oregon, Oswald West. 

California, Hiram Johnson. 

Montana, S. V. Stewart. 

Idaho, John M. Haines. 

Nevada, Tasker L. Oddie. 

Arizona, George W. P. Hunt. 

Alaska, J. F. A. Strong. 

Hawaii, L. E. Pinkham. 
Dr. Hugh M. Smith, U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries, Washmg- 

ton, D. C. 

ACTIVE MEMBERS. 

Life members indicated by (*). 

Ainsworth, E. E., White Building, Seattle, Wash. . „r , 

Allen, H. F., Pres. National Oyster Co., R. 3, Box 67, Olympia, Wash. 

Anderson, Clarence L., 939 19th Ave. North, Seattle, Wash. 

Baldridge, Benjamin, Fish and Game Commission, Startup, Wash. 

Baldridge, Henry, Fish and Game Commission, Palmer, Wash. 

Baldwin, M. D., Member Game and Fish Com., Kalispell, Mont. 

Barron, James T.. 1006 Yeon Building, Portland, Oregon. 

Beach, W. M., Shclton, Wash. , 

Berry, Frank, Secretary Puget Sound Purse Seme Fishermen s Pro- 
tective Ass'n, 2509 North 28th Street, Tacoma, Wash. 

Blass, John, Olympia, Wash. . r. ^ r^ 

Booth, F. E., Pres. Monterey Packing Co., 110 Market St., San Fran- 
cisco, Cal. 

Bothwell, Wm. J., 2732 47th Street S. W., Seattle, Wash. 

Bower, Ward T., U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, 1227 L. C. Smith Building. 
Seattle, Wash. 

Bowman, J. B., Oyster Bay, Kamalchie, Wash. 

Brady, Philip J., Globe Building, Seattle, Wash. 

Brenner, Chas., Mud Bay, Olympia, Wash. 

Brenner, J. J., care of J. J. Brenner Oyster Co.. Olympia, Wash. 

Buschmann, August, L. C. Smith Building, Seattle, Wash. „ „ . , 

Buschmann, C. H., Mgr. Northwestern Fisheries Co., L. C. Smith 
Building, Seattle, Wash. 

Butts, Stephen, Fish and Game Commission, Lebam, Wash. 

Capell, Arch. T. P., U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Oregon City, Ore. 

Clanton. R. E., Master Fish Warden, Pittock Building, Portland, Ore. 

Cobb, John N., Editor Pacific Fisherman, 1321 L. C. Smith Building, 
Seattle, Wash. 

Conn, C. G., Elkhart. Ind. 

Crawford, John M.. Fish and Game Commission, Kendall, Wash. 

Culver, A. E., Dunsmuir, Cal. 

Cunningham, Edward, Mgr. Pacific Net & Twine Co., Pier 8, Seattle, 
Wash. 

Darwin, L. H., Fish and Game Commissioner, Seattle, Wash. 



■102 Pacific Fisheries Society 

Deer, L. H., Shelton, Wash. 

Doney, A. E., Sisson, Cal. 

Dorr, Charles W., 375 Colman Building, Seattle, Wash. 

Doyle, Henry, Vancouver, British Columbia. 

Duke, Robert D., 734 Mills Building, San Francisco, Cal. 

Duncanson, H. B., 1913 14th Avenue North, Seattle, Wash. 

Erismann, Martin C, 621 Colman Building, Seattle, Wash. 

Eyermann, Dr. Barton W., Director Museum California Academy of 
Sciences, San Francisco, Cal. 

Fassett, H. C, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, St. Paul Island, Alaska. 

Fletcher, Emery L., Ely, Nevada. 

Forbes, Robert. Bellingham, Wash. 

Ford, Ira B., 253 Colman Building, Seattle, Wash. 
*Fortmann, Henry F., Pres. Alaska Packers' Ass'n, 85 Second Street, 
San Francisco, Cal. 

Eraser, C. McLean, Director Biological Station, Nanaimo, British 
Columbia. 

Freeman, Miller, 1321 L. C. Smith Building, Seattle, Wash. 

Gardner, John H., U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Birdsview, Wash. 

Gorman, T. J., 412 Colman Building, Seattle, Wash. 

Greenebaum, Alfred, 10 Main Street, San Francisco, Cal. 

Greenwood. Lyle, Department of Zoology, University of Washington, 
Seattle, Wash. 

Guaragnella, T. J., Gen. Mgr. American Fish and Oyster Co., 556 Clay 
Street, San Francisco, Cal. 

Gyger, James H., Fish and Game Commission, Elsinore, Cal. 

Hamlin. Edward H., 206 Mutual Life Building, Seattle, Wash. 

Hancock, W. K., U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Yes Lake, Ketchikan, 
Alaska. 

Hanson, O. C, care of Olympia Oyster Co., Olympia, Wash. 

Heacock, Ray B., Fish and Game Commission, P. O. Box 121, Sea- 
bright, Santa Cruz Co., California. 

Helser, D. R., Olympia, Wash. 

Henkel, C. P., U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Oregon City, Ore. 
*Henshaw, Wm. G., 762 Mills Building, San Francisco, Cal. 

Henver, Harry J.. U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Clackamas, Ore. 

Hobart, Wm. B., Kalama Hatchery, Kalama, Wash. 

Holder, Dr. Charles F., 475 Bellfontaine Street, Pasadena, Cal. 

Hunt, E. W., Fish and Game Commission, Tallac, Cal. 

Hurley, Dan, Olympia, Wash. 

Hylen, I. N., Sec. Alaska Fishermen's Union, 93 Steuart Street, San 
Francisco, Cal. 

Johnson, Sydney E., University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. 

Jones, E. Lester, U. S. Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Jordan, Dr. David Starr, Stanford University, Cal. 

Joyce, Hans, 1917 9th Avenue West, Seattle, Wash. 

Ingham, Dr. , Olympia, Wash. 

Kelly, Jr., H. L., U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Oregon City, Ore. 

Kincaid, Prof. Trevor, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. 

Kinney, M. J., Member Fish and Game Commission, 518 Yeon Build- 
ing, Portland, Ore. 

Kofoid, Dr. Charles A., University of California, Berkeley, Cal. 

Lambson, G. H., U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Baird, Cal. 

Laws, Geo. O., Fish and Game Commission, Weaverville, Trinity Co., 
Cal. 

Leuenberger, John, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Clackamas, Ore. 

Lowman, Will A., Anacortes, Wash. 



First Annual Meeting 103 

McFarland, Wm. H., U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Duckabush, Wash. 

McGowan, H. S., McGowan, Wash. 

McGowan, John D., Ilwaco, Wash. 

McHugh, T. C, Gen. Mgr. Pillar Bay Packing Co., L. C. Smith Build- 
ing, Seattle, Wash. 

Mahone, A. H., U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Quilcene, Wash. 

Manning, Thos. S., Avalon, Cal. 

Mansfield, Walter D., Merchants' Exchange Building, San Francisco, 
Cal. 

Mayhall, L. E., Fish and Game Commission, Seattle, Wash. 

Millett, J. P., Fish and Game Commission, Seattle, Wash. 

Mitchell, Hugh C, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Birdsview, Wash. 

Morrow, J. A., Mud Bay, Olympia, Wash. 

Moser, Capt. Jeff'n F., Gen. Supt. Alaska Packers' Association, San 
Francisco, Cal. 

Munly, M. G., 1006 Yeon Building, Portland, Ore. 

Newbert, F. M., Member Fish and Game Commission, 609 K Street, 
Sacramento, Cal. 

Nidever, H. B., Fish and Game Commission, Box 86, Vallejo, Cal. 

O'Malley, Henry, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, 1227 L. C. Smith Building, 
Seattle, Wash. 

O'Neill, Thos., Shelton, Wash. 

Opsund, Theo., Fish and Game Commission, Salem, Ore. 

Osterud, H. L., University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. 

Ouellett, L. P., Olympia, Wash. 

Palmer, Russell, 1321 L. C. Smith Building, Seattle, Wash. 

Parsons, J. E., Bellevue, Wash. 

Parsons, Theodore, Fish and Game Commission, Kalama, Wash. 

Patching, Fred, Supt. Fortmann Hatchery, Loring, Alaska. 

Persell, W. E.. Arctic Club, Seattle, Wash. 

Peters, J. M., Fish and Game Commission, Olney, Oregon. 

Rice, L. M., Fish and Game Commission, Satsop, Wash. 

Richards, W. W., 1512 Broadway. Oakland, Cal. 

Romine, Alexander P., 4730 20th Avenue N. E., Seattle, Wash. 

Russell, J. R., U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Birdsview, Wash. 

Schaeffle, Ernest, Executive Secretary Fish and Game Commission, 734 
Mills Building, San Francisco, Cal. 

Schmitt, Waldo L., U. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C. 

Schulz, H. A., Fish and Game Commission, Kalama, Wash. 

Scott. J. H.. Olympia. Wash. 

Shebley, W. H., Fish and Game Commission, Sisson, Cal. 

Shultz, William, Friday Harbor, Wash. 

Siebe, John T., 430 Battery Street, San Francisco, Cal. 

Simmons, R. D., Mud Bay, Olympia, Wash. 

Sims, E. A., Port Townsend, Wash. 

Smith, Prof. E. Victor, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. 

Spuhn, Carl, 602 Concord Block, Portland, Oregon. 

Taylor, S. K., Oyster Bay, Kamalchie, Wash. 

Thompson, William F., Stanford University, Cal. 

Van Duzer, H. B., 581 Jackson Street, Portland, Ore. 

Warren, Frank M., 1107 Yeon Building, Portland, Ore. 

Wentworth, Edwin, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Duckabush, Wash. 

Westerfeld, Carl, Member Fish and Game Commission, 854 Mills Build- 
ing, San Francisco, Cal. 

Wilke, Henr3^ Ketchikan, Alaska. 

Winn, Dennis. U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Afognak, Alaska. 

Wold, H. P. A., University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. 

Young, Jack, Fish and Game Commission, Deadwood, Ore. 



CONSTITUTION 

(As amended to date.) 



ARTICLE I. 

NAME AND OBJECT. 

The name of this Society shall be the Pacific Fisheries Society. Its 
object shall be to promote the cause of fish culture; to gather and dif- 
fuse information bearing upon its practical success, and upon all matters 
relating to the fisheries ; the uniting and encouraging of all interests of 
fish culture and the fisheries, and the treatment of all questions regard- 
ing fish, of a scientific and economic character. 

ARTICLE II. 



Any person shall, upon a two-thirds vote and the payment of one 
dollar, become a member of this Society. In case members do not pay 
their fees, which shall be one dollar per year after the first year, and 
are delinquent for two years, they shall be notified by the treasurer, and 
if the amount due is not paid within a month thereafter, they shall be, 
without further notice, dropped from the roll of membership. Any 
person can be made an honorary or a corresponding member upon a 
two-thirds vote of the members present at any regular meeting. 

The President (by name) of the United States and the Governors 
(by name) of the Pacific Coast States, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, and 
Montana, and Alaska and Hawaii territories shall be honorary members 
of the Society. 

Any person shall, upon a two-thirds vote and the payment of twenty- 
five dollars, become a life member of this Society, and shall thereafter 
be exempt from all annual dues. 

ARTICLE III. 

OFFICERS. 

The officers of this Society shall be a president and a vice-president, 
who shall be ineligible for election to the same office until a year after 
the expiration of their term ; a vice-president, a secretary, a treasurer, 
and an executive committee of seven, which, with the officers before 
named, shall form a council and transact such business as may be neces- 
sary when the Society is not in session — four to constitute a quorum. 

ARTICLE IV. 

MEETINGS. 

The regular meeting of the Society shall be held once a year, the 
time and place being decided upon at the previous meeting, or, in 
default of such action, by the council. 

ARTICLE V. 

ORDER OF BUSINESS. 

1. Call to order by president. 

2. Roll call of members. 



First Annual Meeting 105 

3. Applications for membership. 

4. Reports of officers. 

a. President. 

b. Secretary. 

c. Treasurer. 

d. Standing committees. 

5. Committees appointed by the president. 

a. Committee of five on nomination of officers for ensuing year. 

b. Committee of three on time and place of next meeting. 

c. Auditing committee of three. 

6. Reading of papers and discussion of same. 

(Note. — a. In the reading of papers preference shall be given to 

the members present. 
b. The president and secretary are empowered to arrange the 

papers of the meetings of this Society.) 

7. Miscellaneous business. 

8. Adjournment. 

ARTICLE VI. 

CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION. 

The Constitution of the Society may be amended, altered or repealed 
by a two-thirds vote of the members present at any regular meeting, 
provided at least fifteen members are present at said regular meeting. 



B 



B 



TRANSACTIONS 



=OF THE= 



PACIFIC 
FISHERIES 
SOCIETY 




1915 



Eili 



jal 



TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



PACIFIC 
FISHERIES SOCIETY 



AT ITS 



SECOND ANNUAL 
MEETING 



August, 9, 10 and 11, 1915 

AT 

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 



SEATTLE, WASH. 

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 
1916. 



s^ 



y?^ 



(ifftrrra 

1915-1916. 

Elected at the Second Annual Meeting in San Francisco, 
California, for the ensuing year, including the meeting to be 
held at Portland, Oregon, in 1916: 

President Mr. Henry O'Malley, Seattle, Wash. 

Vice-President Prof. Trevor Kincaid, Seattle, Wash. 

Vice-President Dr. Charles L. Edwards, Los Angeles, Cal. 

Secretary Mr. John N. Cobb, Seattle, Wash. 

Treasurer Mr. Russell Palmer, Seattle, Wash. 



lExpnttittP CSIammittr? 

Dr. Barton W. Evermann, San Francisco, Cal. ; Dr. C. McLean Eraser, 

Nanaimo, British Columbia ; Dr. Charles F. Holder, Pasadena, 

Cal; Mr. Leslie H. Darwin, Seattle, Wash.; Mr. M. J. 

Kinney, Portland, Ore. ; Mr. Ward T. Bower, 

Seattle, Wash., and Mr. M. D. Baldwin, 

Kalispell, Montana. 






>s 



N 

^^ CONTENTS 

(r- 

^ Business Sessions: 
■•■J 

Registered Attendance 9 

New Members 9 

Report of Secretary 9 

Report of Treasurer * 10 

Committees Appointed : 

Nomination of Officers 1 

Time and Place of Next Meeting 1 

Auditing 1 

Resolutions 1 

Memorial 1 

Election of Officers .— 12 

Time and Place of Next Meeting 13 

Banquet 13 

Resolutions of Thanks for Courtesies 14 

In Memoriam 15 

Papers and Discussions : 

The Pacific Edible Crab. By F. W. Weymouth 19 

Growth of the Spring Salmon. By C. McLean Eraser, Ph. D 29 

Economical Foods for Rearing Salmon. By Henry O'Malley... -.. 41 

Paranzella, or Trawl Net Fishing in California. By N. B. Sco- 
field 45 

Oceanward Trend of Our Northwest Fisheries. By John N. 
Cobb 53 

Extending the Range of the Golden Trout. By A. D. Ferguson.. 65 

Some Food and Game Fishes of Southern California : Their 
Habits, Present Condition, Need of Protection, Etc. By Dr. 
Charles Frederick Holder 71 

The Close Relation of the United States Coast and Geodetic 
Survey to the Great Fishing Interests of the Pacific Coast 
and Alaska. By E. Lester Jones 83 

Oyster Culture in Washington. By Trevor Kincaid 89 

Sanitary Fish Markets 98 

List of Members of the Society 99 

Constitution 103 



PART I 

BUSINESS SESSIONS 



Transactions of the 
Pacific Fisheries Society 



The second annual meeting was held at San Francisco, 
California, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, August 9, 10 
and 11, 1915. 

Monday, August 9, 1915 

The meeting was called to order in the Assembly room of 
the Mills Building by the president, Mr. Carl Westerfeld, of 
San Francisco, Cal. 

REGISTERED ATTENDANCE 

The president then ordered the roll-call of members to be 
taken. Thirteen members were registered for the meeting, as 
follows : 

Carl Westerfeld, Henry O'Malley, Trevor Kincaid, E. Vic- 
tor Smith, John N. Cobb, B. W. Evermann, Ray B. Heacock, 
C. McLean Eraser, W. H. Shebley, E. W. Hunt, Robert D. 
Duke, N. B. Nidever, and Ernest Schaefifle. 

NEW MEMBERS 

The secretary then read the following list of applicants for 

membership, all of whom were elected : 

J. J. Cryderman, Lee H. Wakefield, Frank S. Fusco, John Gill, 
William L. Finley, *Frank W. Weymouth, Henry O. Smith, J. B. 
Hauer, Frank A. Shebley, Fred Barker, E. P. Mathewson, *J. J. 
Reynolds, Richard Squire, L. Phillips, Fowler Mallett, '^R. S. Johnson, 
*N. B. Scofield, *Charles L. Edwards, *George F. Sykes, *Nathan 
Fasten, Edward M. Hodgkins, William A. Peters, *WilHs H. Rich, 
A. D. Ferguson, John W. Pew, Wm. Timson, James Madison, Charles 
E. Hume, Mansfield Lovell, Frank B. Peterson, J. K. Armsby, Juda 
Newman, Joseph Durney, Louis Ward, Wm. Adamson, O. P. Jenkins, 
and H. B. Torrey. 

Note. — Those designated by an asterisk were present at all or part 
of the sessions. 

REPORT OF SECRETARY 

The secretary then read his annual report as follows : 

August 9, 1915. 
To the Officers and Members of the Pacific Fisheries Society: 

The principal part of the work of the Secretary has been that of 
editing and pulilishing the Transactions of the First annual meeting 
held in Seattle, in 1914. The volume, which comprises 105 printed pages. 



10 Pacific Fisheries Society 

was issued early in 1915, the delay being caused by the necessity for pro- 
viding funds to pay the cost of same. With the aid of our regular 
funds, the sale of copies of the Transactions, and through the generosity 
of certain members, the greater part of the cost of same has been met. 

As editor of the Transactions the Secretary endeavored to keep down 
the cost as much as possible by condensing the section devoted to busi- 
ness proceedings, and he thinks an inspection will show that nothing 
essential has been omitted. The papers submitted by the members have 
been published virtually as they came from the author's hands, and 
the same may be said of the discussions. 

Anticipating that there would be considerable demand for the first 
volume of the Society's Transactions, an edition of 400 copies was 
authorized by the Executive Council of the Society. Of these 137 
copies were mailed to members, 2 copies were mailed to institutions 
(the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries and the University of Washington), 
to which the Society was under obligations, one copy to the Secretary 
of Commerce, one copy to the American Fisheries Society, 2 copies 
to journals for review, while 123 have been sold. The Secretary now 
has in his possession 134 copies of the Transactions and will be glad 
to dispose of these at $1.00 each, the price fixed by the Executive 
Council. 

The deaths within the year of the following members has been 
reported : 

ACTIVE MEMBERS 

E. E. Ainsworth, of Seattle, Wash. 

Charles W. Dorr, of Seattle, Wash. 

C. H. Buschmann, of Seattle, Wash. 

At the close of our First annual meeting the Society had an active 
membership of 126, and an honorary membership of 11. Since then 
3 members have died, while up to the beginning of this meeting 17 
applications for membership had been received. 

REPORT OF TREASURER 

A letter was read from the Treasurer explaining why his 
report had not been received. It was received some time 
later and the salient facts of it are as follows : 

PACIFIC FISHERIES SOCIETY 
Financial Statement 
Receipts — 

Dues 1914 $182.00 

Dues 1915 82.00 

Applications pending 2.00 

Total $266.00 

Sale Proceedings 1 13.00 

Total receipts $379.00 

Disbursements — 

Total disbursements 308.42 

Balance on hand $ 70.58 

Attest: Jan. 3, 1916. 

(Signed) RUSSELL PALMER, 
Treasurer. 



Second Annual Meeting 11 

COMMITTEES APPOINTED 

The following committees were appointed by the President : 

On Nomination of Officers — Dr. B. W. Evermann, Mr. 
Ernest Schaeffle, Prof. E. V. Smith, Dr. C. M. Eraser, and Mr. 
N. B. Scofield. 

On Time and Place of Next Meeting — Prof. Trevor Kin- 
caid, Mr. Henry O'Malley, and R. D. Duke, Esq. 

Auditing — Mr. Henry O'Malley, Mr. Ward T. Bower, and 
Mr. Nathan Fasten. 

Mr. John N. Cobb introduced the following resolution and 
the same was adopted : 

Whereas, Much harm has in the past been done to the commercial 
and game fisheries of the Pacific Coast through the introduction into 
its waters of basses, pikes, pike perches and other predaceous spiny- 
rayed fishes from the east, and 

Whereas, The United States Bureau of Fisheries has adopted the 
policy of refusing to supply such fishes for planting in our costal waters, 
but, unfortunately, in most of our states there is nothing to prevent a 
private party or parties from planting such fishes ; Therefore, be it 

Resolved, That we heartily endorse the stand taken by the Bureau 
in this matter and request that the legislatures of the various states 
and territories comprised within the geographical boundaries of this 
Society be requested to enact a law absolutely forbidding the importa- 
tion and planting of such fishes in their waters. 

Mr. John N. Cobb introduced the following resolution and 
the same was adopted : 

Whereas, There are many special problems of great economical 
importance to the fisheries of this coast, among which may be mentioned 
the migrations of the tuna; the surveying of the oyster grounds and 
the upbuilding of this important industry, which has been in a declining 
condition for some time ; investigations of the life history of the clam, 
crab, halibut, salmon, herring, etc. ; work which can best be done by 
the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, and 

Whereas, We understand that the said Bureau is sadly hampered or 
prevented entirely from carrying on this important work by the lack 
of necessary funds for the maintenance of its present fleet of vessels 
to carry on the field investigations, and also by the lack of a suitable 
marine biological laboratory where much of the work can be done, 
Therefore, be it 

Resolved, That this Society most earnestly requests Congress to so 
increase the appropriations of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries as to en- 
able it to adequately and properly carry out the much needed Pacific 
Coast investigations outlined above, also to provide funds for building, 
equipping and operating a marine biological laboratory on this coast, and 
the Council of this Society is hereby ordered to aid the Bureau to its 
utmost when the latter's detailed plans are outlined a little later on. 

Upon motion the following committee was appointed to 

draw up suitable resolutions expressing the great regret of the 

Society at the passing away of certain of its members since 



12 Pacific Fisheries Society 

the last annual meeting: Mr. R. D. Duke, Mr. Ernest Schaeffle 
and Mr. R. B. Heacock. 

Mr. R. S. Johnson, of Washington, D. C, who was present 
as the official representative of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, 
then delivered the following message of greeting from Dr. 
Hugh M. Smith, United States Commissioner of Fisheries : 
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Pacific Fisheries Society : 

I wish to announce that U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries Dr. Hugh 
M. Smith sends through me greetings to the Pacific Fisheries Society. 
He regrets his inability to participate in the work which you are now 
about ready to take up, but hopes that this second meeting of the Society 
may prove highly successful. He particularly desires to assure the 
Society of the hearty cooperation and support of the U. S. Bureau of 
Fisheries in all matters which have for their object the betterment of the 
fisheries of the Pacific Coast. 

The Society then adjourned for the day. 

The afternoon was spent in a most enjoyable automobile 
trip to the interesting places in and near the city. 
Tuesday, August 10, 1915. 

The morning session was called to order by President 
Westerfeld in the lecture room of the Young Women's Chris- 
tian Association, at the Panama-Pacific International Exposi- 
tion. Mr. Charles A. Vogelsang, who for many years was the 
Chief Deputy of the Fish and Game Commission of the State 
of California and who is now a Commissioner of the Panama- 
Pacific International Exposition, delivered a brief address of 
welcome to the Society on behalf of the Exposition authorities, 
which was responded to by the President. 

ELECTION OF OFFICERS 

The Committee on Nomination of Officers, through Dr. 
Evermann, its chairman, reported the following nominations 
of officers for the ensuing year: For President, Mr. Henry 
O'Malley ; for Vice-president, Prof. Trevor Kincaid ; for 
Vice-president, Dr. Charles L. Edwards ; for Secretary, Mr. 
John N. Cobb ; for Treasurer, Mr. Russell Palmer. 

Moved, seconded and carried that the above be elected as 
the officers of the Society for the coming year. 

The committee also recommended that the following be 
elected as an Executive Committee : 

Dr. Barton W. Evermann, of San Francisco, Calif. ; Dr. C. 
McLean Eraser, of Nanaimo, British Columbia ; Dr. Charles 
F. Holder, of Pasadena, Calif. ; Mr. Leslie H. Darwin, of 



Second Annual Meeting 13 

Seattle, Wash. ; Mr. M. J. Kinney, of Portland, Oregon ; Mr. 
Ward T. Bower, of Seattle, Wash., and Mr. M. D. Baldwin, of 
Kalispell, Montana. 

Moved, seconded and carried that the Executive Committee 
as named be elected. 

TIME AND PLACE OF MEETING 

Mr. Henry O'Malley, chairman of the Committee on time 
and place of the next meeting, reported that the committee 
recommended Portland, Oregon, as the place for the next 
meeting, and that the date be decided upon later. 

Moved, seconded and carried, that Portland, Oregon, be 
selected as the place for the next meeting, and that the fixing 
of the date be left to the Council of the Society. 

The following papers (both of which were illustrated by 
lantern slides) were read and discussed: Prof. Trevor Kin- 
caid, "Oyster Culture in Washington" ; Prof. Frank W. Wey- 
mouth, "The Pacific Edible Crab." 

The afternoon session was called to order in the Lecture 
Hall of the Inside Inn, Panama-Pacific International Exposi- 
tion, with President Westerfeld in the chair. As he had to 
leave shortly thereafter Mr. Henry O'Malley then assumed 
the chair. 

Letters of regret at not being able to be present were read 
by the Secretary from the following members : Dr. Charles F. 
Holder, Mr. C. G. Conn, Mr. E. Lester Jones, Governor Ernest 
Lister, of Washington ; Governor Emmet D. Boyle, of Nevada ; 
Governor George W. P. Hunt, of Arizona, and Governor J. F. 
A. Strong, of Alaska. 

The following papers were read and discussed : Dr. B. W. 
Evermann, "Some Side-Lights on Recent Fur Seal Inquiries" ; 
Dr. C. McLean Eraser, "Rate of Growth of Spring Salmon" ; 
Prof. E. Victor Smith, "The Development of Young Salmon 
Under Varied Conditions of Light." 

In the evening a banquet was tendered the members and 
their ladies by the local fishery interests. It was given at the 
Tait-Zincand restaurant and proved a most enjoyable affair. 
Ex-Governor John M. Slaton, of Georgia, was a guest and 
made a short address. During the course of the evening 



14 Pacific Fisheries Society 

remarks were made by President Westerfeld, President-elect 
O'Malley, Mr. R. D. Duke, Prof. Trevor Kincaid, Dr. B. W. 
Evermann, Mr. John N. Cobb, and others. 

Wednesday, August 11, 1915. 

Session called to order by President Westerfeld in the lec- 
ture room of the Young Women's Christian Association, Pan- 
ama-Pacific International Exposition. 

Moved, seconded and carried that the thanks of the Society 
be extended to the Young Women's Christian Association for 
the use of its lecture room. 

At the suggestion of the Secretary, it was moved, seconded 
and carried that copies of the Transactions of our First Annual 
Meeting be given to all those who have become members since 
that meeting. 

Moved, seconded and carried that the thanks of the Society 
be extended to the California Fish and Game Commission, and 
to all persons who have extended courtesies to our Society 
since we began our sessions in this city. 

The following papers were read and discussed : Mr. Ilenry 
O'Malley, "Economical Foods for Rearing Salmon" ; Mr. John 
N.Cobb,"Oceanward Trend of Our Northwest Fisheries"; Dr. 
Charles F. Holder, "Some Food and Game Fishes of Southern 
California: Their Habits, Present Conditions, Need of Pro- 
tection, Etc."; Mr. N. B. Scofield, "Paranzella, or Trawl Net, 
Fishing in California"; Mr. A. D. Ferguson, "Extending the 
Range of the Golden Trout" ; Mr. E. Lester Jones, "The Close 
Relation of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey to 
the Great Fishing Interests of the Pacific Coast and Alaska." 



Second Annual Mcctin<j 15 



Jin m^mortam 



E. E. AINSWORTH 
CHARLES W. DORR 
C. H. BUSCHMANN 



PART II 

PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS 



nil I'ACIIIC CDIBLr CRAI5 

lly I''. W. WiCYMouin 
of Stanford University 

Tlic cdiMc cial) of llic racilic Coast, Cancer inai/isler, is 
foiiiKJ lioni Lower ( alifmiiia lo Unalaska in shallow water 
on exposed saiuly heaclies or in sandy hays. Tlironj^ii most 
of its ranj,^' its Jiabils are not easy lo observe directly, hnt Held 
work made possible lliroiij^li the intellij^ent interest of the 
I'rovinc ial ( iovernmc-nl of I'.rilish (lolumhia in the life his- 
tories of its a(|ualic animals has fnrnished many important 
fads, some of which may be brielly presented here. I 'art of 
the time is spent in active search for food, but often the crab 
is to bi- fonnd bmied in the sand. I I ere it is not, howi'ver, 
indifferent to its surronndinj^s, but, bein}^ provided with an 
apparatus for obtainin}^ clear water for its j^ills, it is constantly 
on ihe walcli tor' any odor ol food in the steady stri'am of 
water passing,' over its orj^ans of smell, and ever ri'ady to come 
out in |)nrsuit of this food when detected. The food consist.s 
chielly of small (ish ; shrin)ps, small crabs and small clams 
rankinj^ in descending order of im|)orlance. 

Old individuals attain a considerable size. I have seen 
males measuriii},' nine and a (piarlcr inches across the back, 
and lhon}.;h females are never as larj^e, specimens of seven 
and a half inches have been seen. The aj^e represented by 
these cxam|)les or by those that have rea<Iied a marketable 
size is, of course, a ])oint of considerable interest and practical 
value. Data on this point is difficult to obtain and even in 
Europe where the edibic crab (a related s|)ecies) has been 
studied for many years, the rale of j^^rowlh is only veiy incom- 
[)letely known. A considerable number of crabs have been 
kept in a(|uaria and their rate- of {growth noted, larfje numbers 
of crabs have been measured and tabulated to determine the 
fre(|uency of the different siz.es, and from this and other data 
it seems clear that an edible crab of six inches, the lejj^al size 
in most states, is not less than four years old an<l may have 
reached as j^reat an aj^e as seven years. 



20 Pacific Fisheries Society 

It has been found that a female of about four and a half 
inches is sexually mature, and from this time on lays immense 
numbers of eggs. The number of eggs increases with increas- 
ing size. A crab of five and a third inches was found to have 
about 750,000 eggs, while one measuring six inches carried 
1,510,000 eggs. These eggs are laid in the fall and are carried 
attached to the hairs of the abdominal legs through the winter 
and hatch in the spring. For four months following this they 
live at the surface of the water with many other larval forms 
and it is at this time that the greatest destruction takes place, 
many fish feeding almost exclusively on this plankton, as the 
surface life is called. By June or July the larval life is com- 
pleted and the crab, now closely resembling the adult in appear- 
ance, seeks the bottom and takes up the mode of life that it is 
hereafter to follow. 

Although the range of the edible crab is so great, it is not 
everywhere abundant enough to support a commercial fishery. 
At present the southernmost fishery of consequence is that at 
San Francisco. This, and that at Eureka, are two of the most 
important on the coast. In Oregon they are fished at Coos 
Bay and about the mouth of the Columbia. On Puget Sound 
one of the earliest fisheries was at Dungeness, and even now it 
is locally known as the Dungeness crab, but the fisheries about 
Anacortes and at Neah Bay are now more important. In 
British Columbia the crab is extensively fished at Boundary 
Bay and at Prince Rupert, as well as locally at many other 
points. The fisheries of Alaska have never been developed, 
although crabs are abundant, chiefly through the lack of an 
adequate market. 

The fishing methods are for the most part relatively simple. 
In the earlier days of greater abundance and less systematic 
market fishing they were taken in seines along with shore fish 
or picked up from a skifif with a dip net or perhaps a pitchfork 
used as a spear. In regions where they are still abundant, 
campers or Indians may take a few by such means, but more 
efficient gear is required where a market is to be supplied. 
Two methods have proved important, and one or the other of 
these is used according to the requirements of the locality. 

The fishing at San Francisco and Eureka is done on 



Second Annual Meeting 21 

exposed waters off the harbors, and here, as well as at other 
localities where conditions are similar, the hoop net is exclu- 
sively used. This net is but a slight elaboration of the barrel 
hoop covered with netting with which almost all boys have 
fished from some old wharf. The framework of the net com- 
prises two iron rings, and these are connected by netting to 
form, when held by the line, a basin-shaped structure from 
which the crab cannot crawl, but which lies flat on the bottom 
when fishing and at that time offers no hindrance to the crab 
in reaching the bait. Fifteen to twenty of these hoop nets, 
baited with small fish, are set in four to ten fathoms on the 
bars, ranged in line with the run of the tide, and left from half 
an hour to an hour so that the crabs may have time to gather. 
The fisherman then goes over the line, running up against the 
tide. The float is first picked up and then the boat is carefully 
maneuvered until a point directly above the net is reached, 
when the net is jerked off the bottom and hauled to the sur- 
face. For this considerable skill is required, for if the net is 
dragged over the sand in an unskillful attempt to haul it when 
the boat is not in the right position, the crabs will be warned 
and will all escape. When the net has been lifted into the 
boat, the crabs of marketable size are sorted out, the remainder 
thrown overboard, the net rebaited and again set. The nets 
are thus worked over, usually from about sunrise until one or 
two o'clock in the afternoon, when they are picked up and 
brought in, as a net allowed to remain out over night is usually 
silted under so deeply that the line will break before it can be 
freed. 

Where the shifting of the sand in the run of the tides or 
the pounding of the surf is not so marked as, for instance, in 
sheltered bays or sounds, it is possible to use a very different 
kind of gear closely resembling the lobster pot of the eastern 
coast, and this is true of the fishing at Anacortes and at Bound- 
ary Bay. The funnels at either end allow the entrance of the 
crabs, which are unable to find their way out and are caught. 
An opening in the side permits their removal when the trap is 
lifted. The trap may be entirely covered with netting ; it is 
more common to make the funnels of netting and cover the 
trap with chicken wire ; all are tarred to protect them from 



22 Pacific Fisheries Society 

the salt water. They are usually left continuously in the 
water, being hauled three to five times a week and emptied ; so 
that they are actually fishing a greater part of the time than 
is the hoop net. 

With this brief survey of the fishing methods let us pass 
to a consideration of the present state of the crab fishery on 
the Pacific Coast. There can be no doubt that the crab is 
much scarcer than when commercial fishing was started. In 
a report on the crab fishery written for the Bureau of Fish- 
eries in 1880 it speaks of the large numbers taken in beach 
seines hauled on the south side of the Golden Gate and states 
that they were selling "three and four for a quarter" in the 
San Francisco markets. Anyone acquainted with the crab 
fishery of San Francisco knows that it would be practically 
impossible to get any crabs exceeding the legal size of 7 inches 
in any part of the bay at the present time, and all San Fran- 
ciscans know that a single crab usually costs more than the 
three or four of 1880. 

There are parts of the northern coast in Alaska and British 
Columbia where the crabs arc still as abundant as they once 
were in Humboldt Bay, where a skiff could be filled in half an 
hour by picking them up from shallow water with a pitch- 
fork. But in the neighborhood of all towns large enough to 
cause any demand, they have already been enough reduced in 
numbers to force the fishermen to make longer and longer 
trips to more distant grounds to keep up the catch. To give 
a graphic point to this general statement let me cite a particular 
example. Near the city of Victoria is a small lagoon once 
famous for its supply of crabs, but now, because of its easy 
accessibility, much depleted. If we compare the size of the 
crabs taken here with those taken at Prince Rupert, where the 
grounds, though not in their original state, have been fished 
for only a comparatively short time, we get some interesting 
figures. Of 580 crabs taken at Victoria but 15 per cent, ex- 
ceeded the legal size, here 6 inches, while of 1,088 crabs taken 
at Prince Rupert 93 per cent, exceeded the legal size, and 
about 10 per cent, were larger than the largest taken at Vic- 
toria. This is a striking example of the effect that close fish- 
ing may have on the size of the crabs. 



Second Annual Meeting 23 

I do not wish to pose as an alarmist, or to predict the 
speedy extinction of the edible crab, but it is evident on all 
parts of the coast that the supply is diminishing, and that the 
most stringent of our protective laws are doing little more 
than materially to reduce this rate of diminution. What, then, 
do I consider necessary? Only that we extend to the crab 
throughout its range as efficient protection as it now gets in 
any part of it and keep vigilant watch for its future needs. 
At no point on the coast has the crab fishery been destroyed, 
and it is a fact taught laboriously and painfully by the history 
of nearly every fishery in every land, that to preserve a fishery 
is always possible, sometimes easy; to restore a fishery, well 
nigh impossible. Let us preserve ours while we have it to 
preserve. 

To put in more tangible form the methods of preserving 
the crab fishery, I propose to discuss briefly the present laws 
on this coast, their purpose and what they are accomplishing. 
At the very outset, however, we meet with a serious obsta- 
cle — the almost complete lack of adequate statistics. Aside 
from the data on the salmon, there is hardly a food fish on 
this coast on which we have accurate and extensive statistics. 
It is plain that all protective legislation must be a matter of 
guess work unless we know whether, under a given set of con- 
ditions, the particular animal is increasing or decreasing. Such 
statistics must be accurately kept and must extend over a con- 
siderable number of years before they become of much value, 
as there are always fluctuations, good years and bad years, 
that tend to hide the general trend that a long record will 
show. Furthermore they must cover more than merely the 
total annual catch. In the history of nearly every fishery there 
are periods when, due to an increased number of fishermen and 
boats and improvement in the gear, the yearly catch has been 
increasing by leaps and bounds while the grounds were being 
rapidly exhausted, and the catch per man falling startlingly. 
It is, therefore, necessary to supplement the total annual catch 
with data showing the number of men employed and the 
amount of gear used. When statistics of this nature are 
available the efficacy of any set of protective laws may be 



24 



I'aiilu lishi-rirs Siuirtv 



(K-|(-| lUIIU-d, lliil |i\ llu- Opilllilll tit ltU|i| (-SMilll (>l lilts (It lll.ll 

pcisoti. Iiitl \>\ (msiIn' !('(<>}^iii/t'<l lads. 

riic tiio'.l i;fiiit,il l.iw ts lh.it |ti ()\ itlitii; a si/c litiiil liclow 
wliirli ciahs may iiol In- lal\('ti \'\\r lit'. I .[\\i\ iiio.l iiii|>(ii laiil 
|iui"|Mts(' nl llu'st' laws I', lo |H(i|fil a !;i(iii|> ol atiimal'. nl 
iiialtiif aj;i', and lliiis lo |>i(>\itU' a iMoiip ol jiti-fdti ,. I'lic 
iCtnalc Ix'c'oiiu'S inaliii't' al ahoiil I' .. tin lii-s, llic malr al a si/.f 
iiol \v\ ac(Miralt'l\' dclci luttu-d, lutl a' Irasl ln-lo\\ (i iiirlics. 

The si/f liiiiil nut'. I lall aliovc llicsr lijMtH". lo Ik' ol ati\ \alilt', 
tlic dillci «-tti (' lulwccii lite 't/f liiiitl atid llnsc ItiMtii's will 
(K'Irt titttif llic mtittliti atid Iicikc \alttf ol lite In ('cdti ■. |)tc 
sci\r(l. rin- latjM-i a Ictiialc is, lln- mote valiialdc a. a Inccdcf, 
liciaiisc llif moic t'^^^^s pt i)dincd. A Ictiialr ol (• iik In", pto 
duces Iwii'c ;is iiiany I'^K"" •''■ ""•' "ti-.f.tit ttii; .'> ' i tin lie., .tml 
the \ iild id ri^^i'S is .'l^aill doiiMc(l htlotc S iiK lies is iiMilicd. 

rite \aliir ol llic l.iir.c iCtitalc is al omc .ipiMi citl I tout llits; 
to ptolrcl lici ( .iliiotiita lia'. a law lot Widdtii;', llic (.ipliitc ol 
,\\\\ Icmali- .il am liiiic, .mil ollici si. tic. would do well lo lol 
low this ('\ami>lt'. A si/r limit set .is litjdi as /' im lies v\ill, 
liovv('\'t'i', accomplish .ilmosl as mm h, .r. the Icmalcs <lo iiol 
iisiially (•\c<-cd this si/c, I'lom llif. I.nl il lollows .il.o ih.il 
llic coiiiplclc pioUslioii ol llic Icm.ilc doc, iiol ciil.iil .ttiy li.iid 
ship on llic lislictw silKC so lew ol lliciit ic.kIi .i tit.i t l.cl.ihle 
si/c. 

.Aliolhci piiiposc ol llic l.iw, ot tl iiol .1 piiiposc, .il Id. I .III 
cUccI, is lo liiiiiish llic m.iikcl Willi l.it);ci ii.ihs. A (lah 
mrasmtn;; /'| im lies w(i|;lf. ahoitl I' . poiinds. one t>\ Si.| 
inches, ,i pounds. I he dillctftiic in lite .iiitoitiil ol mcil Itii 
iiished is even >;real«-r, as the laic.ci ( i.ih ma\' he ( Ic.iticd |o hel 
\v\ .idv atil;i);c. litis j^fowlh, whic It has doiihU-d llic weif^hl, has 
iiol laken mole than two y<'ars :iiid po;>',ihly only one, so that 
il would seem to he cioiioim lo wail litis e\li,i lime .itid dotih'e 
lite haivesl. ,\ si/c liiiiil id K iiiclics is iiol piailii.il, ImiI lln' 
pi iiK iple I (•inaiiis llic same ; a (• im h ( i .ih wet)- lis a 1 1 tile o\'er 
a pound .111(1 "pi( ks" lo Ics ;tdvaiila);e ihati one ol /' inches. 
The lai)',<M' ( lahs iiol otil\ lia\f mote lood v.iltic, hiil lotm a 
more all i ai I ivc pi odm I , so ih.tl 1 1 oiti iIk' i onitnci < t.il pom I id 
view loo low a .si/c limit is a mistake. 



Second Annual Mcetinij 25 

At presc'iil llic It-j^al size is 7 iiulu's in California, 6^ inches 
in Washington, an<l 6 inches in Oregon and British Columbia; 
Alaska has, I am informed, no regulations in regard to the 
crab. It is highly desirable that our protective legislation be, 
as far as actual ilimatie or oilier conditions permit, uniform, 
and from the reasons 1 have just been citing I believe that a 
legal size limit of not less than 7 inches for the entire coast 
would do mori- than any oilier single reslriclion to preserve 
our crab tisheries. 

The closed season is anollier of llie connnon lonns ol pro- 
tective legislation, ll usually aims to proleel some particular 
class of individuals at some particular season and reduces, as 
well, the total fishing time of the year. The latter effect 
depends upon the lengtli of the season, the time of year makes 
little or no difference. The class of individuals which it is 
usually iiUended to j)rotect is the breeding female, but, as we 
have seen, this is nuich better mel in another way, namely, by 
the complete protection of the female at all times. Aside from 
the breeding season, one other time of year is a critical one 
with Ihe crab and that is the mcjlting or casting season. To 
consider this we must make a digression and lake up some 
points commonly misunderstood. 

On the Atlantic coast the soft shelled crab is considered a 
great delicacy and is pronnnent in the markets. It is often 
asked here why il is that we have no soft shelled crabs. The 
answer is simple, ihey cannot be taken on a commercial scale 
and if ihey could ihey would not be desirable. Let us see 
how this comes ab(jut. The soft shelled crab is not, as many 
people, even fishermen, consider, a different sort or species of 
crab, but merely one which has recently niollc-d and in which 
the shell has not yet hardened. Such a crab is for a time, of 
course, quite helpless and remains hidden until the hardening 
of the shell has progressed far enough to give it some protec- 
tion, when, ravenously hungry from its enforced fast, it comes 
(jul in search of food. In Chesapeake Bay, where the soft 
crabs are so largely taken, the fishing is carried on with dip 
nets in very shallow water, or on a larger scale in deei)er water 
with dredges, so that the fact that the crab is not active at this 
time does not much affect the catch. On the Pacific Coast, on 



26 Pacific Fisheries Society 

the other hand, where the fishing depends almost entirely on 
the use of bait, very few soft crabs are ever taken. 

The edible crab of Chesapeake Bay is much smaller than 
the Pacific species and even here only the smaller ones are 
used in the soft condition. These are caught when very soft, 
or more commonly just before molting, and kept for a time in 
enclosures until molting occurs, when they are marketed as 
rapidly as possible. If not marketed promptly the shell has 
an opportunity to harden at least partially and they become 
less palatable. Could a supply of the western species be 
obtained in the soft condition, the shell, from its greater size, 
would prove far too thick for use in sandwiches, for instance, 
as the eastern ones are often used. Could young of a size 
corresponding to the eastern form be taken in commercial 
amounts, an extremely doubtful supposition, this would entail 
a loss of breeding individuals which could not for a mement 
be considered. Consequently the west must forego a supply 
of soft crab. 

This, however, does not end the question. The western 
species when it does finally enter the traps is not the plump, 
juicy tidbit that the freshly molted ones are. An enforced 
fast and an extremely rai)id growth sometimes amounting to 
as much as a fourth of the original width has used u[) all of 
the stored fat and the meat is watery, often amounting to only 
half the weight, when cf)oked, of the meat of a hard crab of 
the same size, and the flavor is distinctly inferior. Not only 
is there a big economic loss in rushing to market a crab that 
in the course of a month or two will represent twice the food 
value, but since at this time the crabs are feeble and unpro- 
tected, many are injured in handling among the females and 
under-sized ones, and of those kept for the market an imusual 
number die in transportation. All these losses can be pre- 
vented only by placing the closed season at the time when the 
soft crabs are usually taken. 

Alaska and British Columbia have no closed season, in 
Oregon and Washington the months of July, August and Sep- 
tember are closed, and in California August, September, Octo- 
ber and the first half of November. A more complete knowl- 
edge of the life history of the crab may indicate that this 



Second Annual Meeting 27 

season varies with different localities, hut the extent of the 
season should not he less than three months, and if it were 
uniformly four months it would he much more efficient. 

Other measures have heen i)ro])osed and are in force in 
various i)arts of the coast, hut none seem of such general 
importance as to rec|uire discussion. Protective measures 
should always he the sim])lest that will accomplish the ends in 
view, as intricate laws are often difficult and costly of enforce- 
ment, and what is worse, give rise, through difference of inter- 
pretation and ease of mistake, to friction and hard feeling 
between the very parties who must cooperate in the ])reserva- 
tion of the fisheries, the fishermen and the officers of the vari- 
ous fish commissions. 

DISCUSSION. 

Prksident: T would like to ask Professor Weymouth, arc tlic cral)s 
caught in Washington and Oregon the same species as those caught 
here in San Francisco? 

Prof. Wkymoutm : Yes; there is only a single marketable form on 
the entire coast. There are two or three other species large enough to 
be eaten and abundani, but there is no other cral) on the market but this 
particular species. 

Prksmjknt: Any further discussion on the talk that has been made 
by Professor Weymouth on crabs? Any questions to ask? 

Dr. Edwards: I lave there been any determinaticjus about wander- 
ing; al)out the migration of crabs? 

Prof. Wkymoutii : No, I cannot answer the f|ucstion at all. C)f about 
250 crabs captured on San Francisco bar, labelled and liberated, partly 
on the bar and partly inside the bay, there seemed to be no uniformity 
of behavior. Some lil)erated outsi(le were recaptured in the bay, some 
liberated in the bay were recaptured on the bar, and some had traveled 
north or south outside the bay. Some moved a number of miles while 
free, but there was nothing that could be called a migration in a defi- 
nite direction. It has been determined with the luiropean crab that 
there is quite a definite migration. The females migrate along the coast 
against the prevailing currents during the breeding season, and there is 
also a seasonal migration from deep to shallow water. If anything of 
that sort occurs here, we have not enough data to prove it. 

Mr. O'Mallicy : Is it true, as sometimes stated by local fishermen, 
that cold water has a very bad effect if the crabs are exposed to it; 
that they are killed by frost? 

Prof. Weymouth : Yes, they are easily killed by frost, undtjubtedly, 
but 1 do not think where they live the water very often freezes. 

Mr. O'Mallky : I had reference to the transfer from the fishing 
grounds outside to the place of shipment in Oregon. There is another 
question I wanted to ask. Do you know of any record or any data 
on the transporting of crabs in seaweed, or the way we do with lobsters? 
What is your opinion as to how they will stand transportation under 
those conditions? 

Prof. Weymouth : I think Mr. IJabcock, wlien he was fish connnis- 
sioner of this state, sent some to the Chicago ICxposition, and I believe 
some were taken to the Atlantic coast, and on those long distances they 
traveled best in seaweed, not in water. Unless there are very good 



28 Pacific Fisheries Society 

facilities for handling the water, they will survive much bettor simply 
packed in medium sized boxes, arranged shingle fashion with their 
heads up and covered with a small amount of seaweed. All seaweed is 
not equally good ; someone was telling me an instance in which the 
common bladder weed (Fucus) was used with disastrous results, the 
slime from the l)ladders smeared over the crabs and killed them. Ex- 
posure to sunlight and heat kills them more rapidly than anything. 
Frost would kill them, but low temperature does not have a very bad 
effect. 



GROWTH OF THE SPRING SALMON 

By C. McLean Eraser, Ph.D. 
From the Pacific Coast Biological Station, Nanainio, B. C. 

In recent years much attention has been paid to methods 
of conservation of the supply of food fishes. Among the 
species abundant in Pacific waters, no species is more worthy 
of consideration in this regard than the spring salmon, not 
only on account of the size it attains but also on account of 
the quality of the llesh. 

In order that rational methods may be used, it is necessary 
to know many facts about the life-history of the species. 
Much is already known about the spring salmon but much 
remains to be investigated. In certain res]Kcts it can be more 
easily and more thoroughly studied than other species of the 
genus. The sockeye apparently moves right on to the open 
ocean after coming down the rivers in early life and there it 
stays until it is ready to make the long journey back to the 
rivers to spawn. During the period that it remains in the sea 
-it is a difficult matter to learn directly anything very definite 
as to habits or mode of life. The spring salmon, on the other 
hand, may remain in the inner waters all the time it s])ends in 
salt water. It takes the spoon readily and may be obtained 
at all periods of its existence, at all times of the year. As the 
herring is its main article of diet, it is fairly sure of a supply 
throughout the year, but. if the herring fails, it is not averse 
to making use of sand launccs, young salmon, crustaceans of 
various kinds, including decapods, schi7,o])ods, coi)epods, am- 
phipods, ccphalopods, both squid and octopi. 

Much can be learned by sudying the individual fish if large 
numbers arc caught at different times and under different con- 
ditions. In this way particular knowledge is gained of each 
at a definite period in its life and by getting this knowledge at 
various periods, much about the whole life history may be 
worked out. Another method is now coming into prominent 
use, whereby something of the past history of each individual 
can be made out by a study of the scales. 



30 Pacific Fisheries Society 

Most of the organs of the body have a relative increase in 
growth similar to one another and to the whole fish, and the 
scales do not provide an exception. They appear when the 
fish are very small and remain throughout its whole life unless 
removed by accident. Their mode of growth is such that a 
change of conditions of life is at once indicated and hence 
their great value as a record of events in the life-history of 
the fish. 

The scale consists of two parts, one without any character- 
istic markings and the other, usually a larger portion, with a 
number of ridges on the surface in the form of concentric 
rings, or partial rings, around a central nucleus. Under the 
most favorable conditions the scale grows rapidly, as the fish 
does, and the ridges are far apart. When conditions are 
unfavorable the scale grows slowly and the ridges are close 
together. Probably the food supply is the greatest determin- 
ing factor, therefore, in the spring and summer, when the food 
is most abundant, the structure of the scale has a loose appear- 
ance, while in the winter, when the food is scarce, the rings 
are close together. This is so marked in the scale that those 
close portions are called "winter checks." By noticing the 
summer growth and the winter check, the age of the fish may 
be determined in the great majority of cases without confusion. 

As there has been some doubt cast on the validity of the 
winter check I have taken advantage of a favorable oppor- 
tunity during the year to come to some definite conclusion in 
the matter. Beginning early last fall, I was able to get speci- 
mens of spring salmon for examination at short intervals, 
sometimes daily, through the winter and spring. In all scales 
taken from spring salmon caught from January 6 to March 
17, with but one exception, there was indication of retardation 
of growth at the margin. On the other hand, with very few 
exceptions, no scales obtained after April 22 and before 
November 27 had indication of retardation at the margin. 
From March 17 to April 22 and from November 27 to January 
5, some show retardation at the margin while others do not. 
These observations show conclusively that the check takes 
place during the winter season, although, since the greater 
portion of the check does not occur during the coldest part 



Second Annual Meeting 31 

of the winter, temperature seems to have Httle to do with it 
unless indirectly in connection with the food supply. Einar 
Lea has come to much the same conclusion as to the time of 
the check in the North Sea herring by using a different method 
of determination (Pubhcations de Circonstance, No. 51, July, 
1911). 

In some cases the winter checks are not the only checks 
on the scales, as for various reasons there might be a shortage 
of food at other times of the year. This shortage is not liable 
to last over so long a period, hence the check produced seldom 
causes much confusion in the interpretation of the scale after 
a certain degree of facility has been attained. 

In the purely marine fishes, the summer growth and the 
winter checks, together with any accessory checks, are the 
main matters for interpretation, but in such fish as the salmon, 
another important change takes place in the life of the fish. 
The salmon is hatched out in the fresh water and lives in it 
for a longer or shorter time before proceeding to the sea. 
Unfortunately this, the greatest change, is not recorded on the 
scale in all cases, for the simple reason that many salmon go 
down to salt water as fry before the scales have started to 
grow. On the other hand, some of them do not leave the 
fresh water in the first year but pass down as yearlings. 
These have scales and they show quite distinctly the change 
in conditions of life. The fish that remains in fresh water 
for a year does not get so good a food supply and conse- 
quently does not grow so rapidly as its relative in the sea. 
The scale shows this, as the growth representing this period 
is small and the rings are very close together. The first year 
area of the salmon in the sea is quite wide, sometimes wider 
than any of the other year areas, and has more widely spaced 
rings, sometimes passing almost insensibly into the next year's 
growth, but more commonly showing the check at the margin 
of the year as the others do. A glance at the scale is usually 
sufficient to tell whether the fish went to the sea as fry or as 
yearling. Gilbert, who has done much work on the scales of 
the sockeye, has named these, fish of the "sea type" and fish 
of the "stream type." After the first year the two types are 



32 racitic I'islu-rirs Socit'ty 

oil imich the saiuo t'ootiui; and the j;ro\vth oi the scale shows 
a siiuihuity oi comlitions. 

Since the scale grows at approximately the same relative 
rate as the fish itself, it is possible to calculate the growth of 
a fish, when the length at the time of removal of the scale is 
known, by a measurement of the year growtlis in the scale. 
Since the tisli is oi some si/.e before the scale starts to grow, 
it is necessary to take that into consideration before the calcu- 
lation is made. The spring salmon oi the "sea type" is about 
two inches long when the scale starts to grow. 1 do not know 
how long one of the "stream ty]>e" is, but as it is nearly one 
and a half inches U>ng before the \o\k is absorbed it camiot 
be much short of two inches when the scale starts to grow. 
(The measurement here, as in all other cases in this paper, 
is the total length not including the rays oi the caudal tin). 
If two inches are taken from the ti>tal length, therefore, the 
remainder may be diviiled in the same ratio as the scale. To 
illustrate, consiiler a lish M inches long ot which the scales 
are prepareil for examination. .\ magnitied drawing is made 
and on this drawing the distance along a radius from the 
nucleus to the end of the first year is !'.( inches, from this to 
the end of the second year lis inches, from this to the end of 
the third year "s inch and to the end of the fourth year 44 
inch. Two inches are taken from the total length, M inches, 
leaving 32 inches; 32 is divided in the proportion of I't, Ij/^, 
"s and ^4' giving 10 inches ior the first year. ^) ior the second, 
7 for the third and (» for the t'ourth. As the lish was 2 inches 
long before the scale started to gri)w, it was 12 inches long at 
the end of the first year, 21 inches long at the end of the 
second vear. 2S inches at the end oi the third yeai' and 34 
inches at tlie end of the ftnu'th year. 

Since it is possible to calculate with some degree of ac- 
curacy the growth in each year, it seemed worth while to 
examine the scales of a large number ol specimens to see 
especially if the effect of the stunted growth oi the tish oi the 
"stream type" during the first year continued throughout life. 
If it does, rearing ponds, as far as this species is concerned, 
may be less of a blessing than has been supposeil. As yet 1 
have not examined a sufficient number to draw very deiuute 



Second Annual Meeting 33 

(■(inclusions Imt possibly cnoiij^li to sec what the indications 
are. It must be remembered that conclusions drawn from 
data obtained in one district should not be ap])Iied even lo the 
same species in another district unless investigation i>roves 
that the conditions are similar. In the case of different species, 
even if they are closely relatefl, such ajtplicalion is liable to 
lead to j^rievous error. 

Ill ;ill, llic j^rowtli rate of 218 lias \>cvu worked out. Of 
these nearly 100 were cauj^ht in the Strait of fjeorgia near 
the Biological Station, Nanaimo (these were nearly all young 
specimens), another 100 were obtained on June 22 at New 
Westminster, caught in the Fraser River, and the remainder 
at Vancouver on July 12, caught at the mouth of the Skeena 
and the Campbell rivers. Of these, 65, or 30 per cent., were 
of the "stream type" and 153, or 70 per cent., of the "sea 
type." Of the "stream type," 10 were in the second year, 7 
in the third year, 33 in the fourth year and 15 in the fifth 
year. Of the "sea type," 46 were in the second year, 30 in the 
third year, 69 in the fourth year and 8 in the fifth year. In 
the "stream tyjje," the average length at the end of the first 
year was 5 inches, at the end of the second year 15 inches, 
at the end of the third year 24 inches and at the end ai the 
fourth year 31 inches. In the "sea type," the average length 
at the end of the first year was Wy^ inches, at the end of the 
second year 21 inches, at the end of the third year 28_^ inches 
and at the end of the fourth year 33j/2 inches. To put in 
tabular form: 

Ix'ngth at the end of the 

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 

year year year year 

Stream type 5 15 24 31 

Sea type 11;^ 21 28>4 33>^ 

Growth during 

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 

year year year year 

Stream tyjje 5 10 9 7 

Sea type W/^ 9>^ 7^^ 5 

If this was a representative lot of spring salmon for this 
district, and I know of no reason why it should not be, it may 



34 Pacific Fisheries Society 

be concluded thai a large majority come down to the sea as 
fry, 70 per cent, of the total number. This fact may have no 
bearing on the rearing pond argument, except that in nature 
it is evident the "sea type" has the preference. It might be 
that the numbers are more nearly e(|ual in the first place, but 
since the fry in the fresh water are subject to greater dangers, 
a greater proportion disappear, a condition that might be 
remedied by the retention in ponds for a year, but J doubt 
very much that this is the case. If all the hatcheries were to 
introduce rearing ponds for all of the spring salmon fry, one 
question might be settled in the course of time. Since all the 
hatchery fish would be of the "stream type," an examination 
of the proportions of the two types in the fish then becoming 
mature would show by comparison if the number that the 
hatcheries turn out are really making an appreciable difTcrcnce 
to the general supi)ly. 

In looking at the numbers of the dilTerent ages that were 
examined, the second and third year figures do not help, be- 
cause almost all of these were immature fish with no im- 
mediate intention of going u|) the rivers. In the fourth year 
the numbers 30 and 69 bear much the same ratio as do the 
totals. In the fifth year there are fewer "sea type" speci- 
mens than "stream type," 8 to 15, but the numbers are too 
small to form a basis for a definite conclusion. From this 
examination, therefore, there is nothing definite to indicate 
that the one type is likely to mature more rapidly than the 
other. 

The most definite information comes from the study of the 
growth in the different years. The tish that lives in the fresh 
water for a year starts its second year with a big handicap, 
as it is less than half of the length of one that has spent the 
most of this time in the sea. A "stream" fish, only 5 inches 
long, sees the "sea" fish 6^ inches ahead of it in growth. It 
starts in to reduce the lead, but during the next year it makes 
but little headway, although it does not fall farther behind. 
The figures given above indicate a gain of half an inch in the 
year, leaving it still six inches behind. In the third year it 
does better, gaining one and a half inches, and in the fourth 
year two inches, but it is still two and a half inches behind. 



Second Annual Meeting 35 

This docs not seem so very mucli but it may represent at this 
stage a dilference of five pounds in weight. Ihi fortunately, 
no si)ecimens in the sixth year were obtained, as it would be 
interesting to note if the lead is finally overcome. As com- 
pratively few reach this age, however, this would have little 
real bearing on the case. 

It is largely on the fish in their fourth and liflh years that 
the canners must depend. If the run were all of the "stream 
type" it would mean (|uite a considerable decrease in the 
average size of the fish caught. To get the same weight of 
fish it would l)e necessary to catch a much larger number. 
This would increase the exi)ense in handling even if the extra 
number were available. Of course it is said that so many 
more would be carried past the most perilous period of their 
lives and hence of necessity there must be a greater number 
reaching the sea. I am not so sure of that. It is quite true 
that the fry are preyed upon extensively as soon as they are 
set free, but those that do escape soon become wary so that 
they are not easily caught. On the other hand, those kept in 
rearing ponds are entirely unused to danger, so that they will 
learn methods of protection or escape much less readily than 
the younger fish. 

We have no very conclusive proof that the artificial hatch- 
ing of species that are well established in any habitat has been 
a success, commercially or biologically. No method has yet 
been devised to prove or disprove it definitely. It sounds v^ell 
to speak of the hundreds of millions of fry turned out, but we 
really do not know if it has any appreciable efTect on the can- 
nery product. Similarly, in the case of the rearing ponds, the 
proposition appears to be a good one but until further investi- 
gations are made, extending over a number of years, it is 
just as well not to be too sanguine of results. 
DISCUSSION. 
Mr. O'MArj.KY: GentlLMncn, this is a very interesting paper, and one 
whicli touclics upon a very vital proI)kMn, a [jrohk^ii wliich is not only 
before the Bureau of Fisheries, but every bureau on tlie coast. I am in 
favor of feeding young sahnon. My personal observations have led me 
to take this stand, and I am not ready to be convinced that it is not 
right until large numbers of adult salmon have been examined. I feel 
it is a prol)lem which must be worked out. It is being worked out by 
Mr. Rich, on the Columbia River, at the present time. I am not pre- 
pared just now to say what he is finding out, but I am sorry he is not 
here to take up the matter and talk to us about it. 



36 Pacific Fisheries Society 

But I do want to bring one thing to light at this time. It is known 
that this is one of the biggest years on the Columbia River; there are 
more spawning fish on the spawning beds today than there have been 
for many years, and the pack is larger than it has been for many years. 
Another instance, similar to that on the Columbia River, is on the 
White Salmon River. I think Mr. Rich located that station some years 
ago. In its early history the station took 17,000,000 eggs. In the last 
few years feeding operations have been conducted there, and during 
the past three years it has not been any task to take 35,000,000 eggs, 
and there was fish enough in the river to provide another twenty mil- 
lion. Whether that is due to the feeding or not I cannot state, and I 
do not think anyone is in position to say definitely, but there has been 
a decided difference in the stream, and the same is true in the Big 
White Salmon River. The Bureau of Fisheries have not had the funds 
to feed that number here, but the canners on the Columbia River have 
often assisted by putting up the funds for the work. 

Mr. Cobb: Is the take at the Bonneville hatchery also increasing? 

Mr. O'Malley: It increased more last year than any other. Years 
ago the Bureau of Fisheries used to take five and a half million eggs 
at the present Bonneville State Hatchery and if we got a million and 
a half we had a good season, but in the last few years they have been 
taking tlic salmon eggs further up stream and maturing them there. 
And the fish come in there in larger numbers as compared with what 
they did years before. But that is nothing but a large feeding station. 

Dr. Fraser's experiment may work out in the northern rivers, where 
he is working it out, while other conditions would be better or more 
suited to the Columbia River. Years ago we liberated all our sockeyes, 
which, judging from Dr. Gilbert's work, it is evident was entirely 
wrong. 

Prof. Sykes : How many fish have been examined. Dr. Fraser? 

Dr. Fraser : We used 218, extending over one year. 

Mr. Cobb : It is always well in talking about increases in streams 
to compare not only the hatchery takes of eggs but also the returns in 
the commercial fisheries. There is no question but that in 1914 the 
Columliia had a better season than in the previous three years, so far 
as chinooks were concerned, while the run of Bluebacks was the largest 
since 1888. 

Mr. O'Malley : 1889, I think. 

Mr. Cobb : Now, this year the chinook canned pack will probably 
be one hundred per cent, greater than last year, but that does not mean 
there were that many more fish in the river. This year, owing to the 
lack of market for these fish in Germany and other European countries, 
where they are, under normal conditions, marketed in a mild-cured or 
frozen condition, they are nearly all going into cans. There is probably 
a fifteen per cent, increase over last year, so far as I now know, while 
the spring run is still on. But the one hundred per cent, increase in the 
canned pack, for the reasons noted above, does not represent an actual 
increase to this extent in the number of salmon actually in the river. 
For some reason the Columbia, in the last few years, has shown an 
increase in the run of chinooks. This, doubtless, is an actual increase, 
If it appeared at one place and not at another, I would not so consider 
it, as there might be some physical or climatic condition which would 
prevent the commercial fishermen at one place from catching so many. 

Dr. Evermann : The investigation I referred to in my fur-seal 
paper is an experiment which would throw light on this very question. 
The proposition there was to take each year a record of the commercial 
catch of sockeyes in that region, and then to rack the outlet of Wood 
River, or the lake, and actually count the number of sockeyes that went 



Second Annual Meeting 37 

up that stream each season. The sum of tlic fish caught hy the com- 
mercial fisheries, pUis the number counted as going up the Wood River, 
would he the total niunljcr returning to that region each year. Con- 
tinue that count over a sufficiently long series of years, and you will 
reach this important fact : What number of sockeyes must go up 
Wood River each year to spawn to i)ermit a commercial catch such as 
is secured each year? What commercial catch can you expect each year 
from a spawning run of so many thousand fish in Wood River each 
year? 

Now, the answer to that question would give you the ratio between 
the number of spawning fish necessary and the number wliich could be 
caught commercially each year. 

Whenever that can be done — and I am sure it can be done on the 
Wood River — it doesn't make any difference about the nearby streams, 
but the final result or ratio will be reliable and can be counted upon. 

Suppose experience has led us to believe that a maximum of four 
million sockeyes can be caught off the mouth of any particular stream 
each year, then the question to arrive at is (leaving out propagation), 
what number of fish must go up that stream each year and si)awn in 
order to make it possible to catch four million sockeyes each year off 
the mouth of that stream? 

When you get that ratio then it does not make any difference how or 
where you catch the fish. The whole discussion regarding different 
kinds of gear, whether you shall use the trap-net, the pound-net, or 
haul seine or purse seine, whether one or the other is more destructive, 
that all vanishes. It does not make any difference how you catch the 
fish, or where you catch them, or when you catch them ; the only thing 
necessary is to let the number go back to the spawning beds to make 
it certain that, four or five years hence, the required number of adult 
salmon shall come back. And it would seem that the liest way for the 
commercial fisheries to do is to rack the stream, and then the govern- 
ment and the state officials should see that a sufficient number is allowed 
to pass by to the spawning grounds, and after that numi^r has passed, 
then close the rack and let the commercial fishermen catch the rest as 
easily as they can. 

Now, should you let the first run go by or the last? or let some go 
by and then catch some, and then open the racks again and let more go 
by? Those are questions of detail which you would have to consider 
in connection with saving all parts of the run, or saving some and 
killing others. 

Pkof. Sykes: Were the fish taken directly from the sea or the 
spawning grounds? 

Dr. Fra.ser : The majority were gotten with spoons right out in the 
strait. Some of them were just started up the river, but had gotten 
nowhere near the spawning grounds. 

Prof. Svke.s: It would be interesting to point out some difficulties 
one might meet with in case the fish should be taken at the spawning 
grounds. 

In the course of investigations conducted during the past year to 
determine the age of salmon at spawning, facts were revealed which 
showed that there could be absolutely no correlation between the length 
or weight of a fish taken from the spawning grounds and the size of its 
scales. It seems that not only do the scales not grow uniformly on the 
entire fish, but that soon after the fish enters fresh water the scales 
begin to disintegrate, so that by the time the salmon reach the spawn- 
ing grounds there are practically no perfect scales on them. 



38 Pacific Fisheries Society 

The majority of the cases examined showed the edges of the scales 
worn off, and the number of circuli, or individual rings, found on the 
scales of a single fish showed a variation as wide as eighty. 

Dr. Fraser : I think that is plausible, as the scales get smashed up 
in going up the river. Two or three individuals in Europe tried to 
figure the ratio between the number of rings and the age, but I think it 
proved to be a failure. You will find a good many different sizes of 
scales on the same fish. The scales that I have generally used are those 
somewhere near the lateral line, and pretty well towards the head. 
But that does not make much difference, as far as I can see, because 
no matter whether the scale is large or small, you will find the same 
ratio on that line. 

It looks very much like a piece of the limb of a tree when you cut 
it across. The loose growth in the spring corresponding to the loose 
arrangement of the rings. Similarly with the close growth. It is a 
single band in the case of a herring; but in the case of a salmon there 
are three or four, or sometimes five of those rings, close together. 

The other day, coming down on a boat, we looked at a log and 
noticed some of the year-growths to be very little ; the rings were very 
close together, while in other years they were a considerable distance 
apart. There might be a wide piece with a number of rings, from four 
or five to sixteen or twenty, in one year. And then, when they get 
a good supply of food in the spring it increases very rapidly. In the 
young fish the scales rub off very easily when they regenerate ; they do 
not regenerate as perfect scales, but ordinarily it is possible to get a 
great number of perfect scales on a fish. I have examined big salmon 
and other fish scales of fish which had gone up the stream. 

Prof. Sykes : I had thought to bring that question out. That was 
the very proposition we started out to investigate, namely, the reliabil- 
ity of theories which held that the age of fishes could be determined by 
the growth-rings. It had been reported in some of the general litera- 
ture that each year's growth was indicated by a band of sixteen cir- 
culi ; an assumption made by Malloch in connection with investigations 
made on the Atlantic salmon. The question was raised by some mem- 
ber of the Oregon Fish Commission and was referred to me. I de- 
tailed an assistant, H. W. Hyland, to carry on the investigation. The 
results showed, first, the number of rings or circuli, in the growth band, 
sixteen, is not constant; second, an indefinite number of the rings at 
the edge of the scale were eaten away by the fresh water ; third, entire 
bands of circuli were either worn away or obliterated. Thus, the scales 
of fish that have been exposed to fresh water for any considerable 
period could not be relied upon for age determinations. However, it 
was observed that the scales just behind the dorsal fin in the lateral 
aspect suffered less deterioration than on any other part of the body. 

Dr. Fraser : We found some cases where there were only two or 
three rings, and some where there were five or six in the same place 
and at the same time. 

Mr. Scofield : I think that in work of this kind we should be very 
careful before drawing conclusions. I know that in the investigations 
of Dr. C. H. Gilbert he works with the scales of thousands of fish 
from one stream in order to make the results less subject to error. 
As his work has progressed, he finds it desirable to collect scales from 
progressively larger numbers of fish. In one month this summer he has 
collected scales from 6,000 fish. An investigation of this kind should 
extend over a number of years, for the fish hatched in one year may not 
show the same line of development as those hatched in succeeding 
years. 



Second Annual Meeting 39 

In connection with determining the efficiency of artificial propaga- 
tion, there is one experiment, which, as far as I know, has never been 
proposed — and this need not be taken too seriously — but it has one great 
advantage in that it requires no outlay of money to try it : Take a 
stream where it is supposed the run of salmon is being kept up by arti- 
ficial propagation, and then discontinue hatching operations for one year 
and watch for the result four years later or whenever the fish resulting 
from that year's spawning are due to return. It has been suggested 
that this experiment is not likely to be tried, for if any commission 
should adopt this method, they would lose, no matter what the result, 
for if there should be a decrease in the number of fish, they would be 
criticized for not operating the hatcheries on that year, and on the other 
hand, if there should be no decrease in the number of fish it would be 
charged that their hatching methods were no good. 



ECONOMICAL FOODS FOR REARING SALMON 

By Henry O'Mallev, 
Field Superintendent, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. 
In recent years it has become well recognized that real 
success in the propagation of salmon on the Pacific Coast is 
determined in large measure by the extent to which the young 
are reared to the fingerling size before being liberated instead 
of the more obsolete method of planting enormous numbers 
in the defenseless fry stage a short time before the final 
absorption of the yolk sac. This pertains particularly to the 
Chinook, sockeye and silver salmons, which are known to 
pass a part or the whole of their first year's existence in fresh 
water, a period of residence that has been determined in con- 
clusive manner chiefly as the result of the general investi- 
gations and the study of the scales of salmon conducted by 
Dr. C. H. Gilbert of Stanford University. The demand for 
fingerlings which has naturally followed this recognition of 
the great value of fingerlings over fry has developed the neces- 
sity of a cheap food that will furnish proper nourishment for 
the young fish and be obtainable in large quantities, as the cost 
of liver, which has long been a favorite article of food for 
young fish on this coast, has become prohibitive except as it 
may be used occasionally for a brief period to aflford a change 
of diet. 

One of the first cheap foods to be utiHzed in large quanti- 
ties by the Bureau of Fisheries was the Columbia River smelt, 
which was first tried at the Oregon stations about five years 
ago. These fish can be purchased during the run at the height 
of the season for $20 per ton at a cold storage plant in Port- 
land. An additional charge of $20 per ton covers sharp freez- 
ing and storing for a period of six months and this, together 
with transportation charges, makes the average cost of the fish 
about 2^ cents a pound delivered. 

Smelt have been fed both raw and cooked. When used in 
the raw state the fins and heads are removed and the fish are 
ground once through the coarse plate of an Enterprise meat 
chopper, after which they are run through the fine plate twice. 



42 Pacific Fisheries Society 

This method, however, has not proved satisfactory, as the 
smelt are very oily, and in feeding difficulty has been experi- 
enced in keeping the troughs clean ; also intestinal trouble is 
feared from the innumerable small, sharp bones. The method 
which has given most satisfactory results is to place the smelt 
in 50 or 100-pound lots in a farm kettle and cook them until 
the bones become softened. After this a quantity of the cooked 
mass convenient for handling is placed in gunny sacks and per- 
mitted to drain thoroughly. The mass in the sack is then trans- 
ferred to a press of convenient size, operated by an ordinary 
house jack, and is pressed into cakes 12 inches by 12 inches 
and varying from 3^^ to 4 inches in thickness. The burlap 
forming the sack is peeled away and is serviceable for further 
use. Quantities of this food can be prepared at one time, and 
if kept in a cool, dry place will remain in a wholesome condi- 
tion for several days. When needed for food it is grated by 
means of a home-made power grater and screen ; the degree of 
fineness depending upon the age of the fish to be fed. After 
this operation it presents the appearance of coarse meal and 
can be scattered over the surface of the water, and is cleaned 
up by the fish before it reaches the bottom. Prepared in this 
manner it makes a good, clean, rich food, and one which the 
fish take readily. The cost of this food is very moderate. 

Culled canned salmon, or do-overs, have been successfully 
used for the feeding of young salmon by heating the contents 
of the cans thoroughly and pressing and grating in the manner 
just described for preparing smelt. Particular attention is 
invited to this method of using canned salmon in feeding young 
fish, as heretofore there has been considerable complaint that 
poor results follow the use of this food. If, however, it is 
prepared as herein mentioned, it will give satisfactory results. 

After meeting with success in the feeding of canned sal- 
mon, and having noticed each spring for several years the 
young salmon working on the carcasses of the silver salmon 
which had spawned late and died on the beds, it occurred to 
to me that the bodies of the parent fish, if properly prepared 
and preserved, would make a good food at a small cost. With 
this in mind instructions were issued to the various stations 
of the Bureau on this coast, including Alaska, to put up a quan- 



Second Annual Meeting 43 

tity of the spawned salmon for fish food. The fish, after be- 
ing reheved of their eggs, are skinned, spUt, and carefully 
boned, and are then placed in tanks or barrels in alternate lay- 
ers of fish and salt, water being added when necessary to 
keep the brine well over the top layer. Quantities also have 
been prepared at the Bureau's stations in Washington by dry 
salting the fish in dairy salt and packing in a dry, tight box 
or other container, weighted down and held in a solid mass 
for a period of twenty-four hours. They are then taken out 
and rinsed in fresh water and hung over a pole in the dry 
house. A slow heat at first is applied to toughen the fiber, fol- 
lowing which they are kept in the dry house until quite dry 
and hard, when they are packed in boxes between layers of 
paper to absorb any moisture, and held in dry storage until 
needed. Still another method was tried at the Bureau's sta- 
tions in California, where a c^uantity of sun-dried or air-cured 
salmon was prepared, no salt being used, as climatic condi- 
tions are favorable for curing salmon in this manner until late 
in the the fall. 

Several methods of preparing this food were adopted. In 
all cases, however, the fish were first soaked well, preferably 
over night in running water, to remove the salt. Some of 
them were then cooked, pressed and grated ; others were pre- 
pared by grinding in an Enterprise meat chopper and then 
mixed with mush made from middlings ; while quantities were 
prepared and fed in a raw state. But in all cases the vari- 
ous superintendents reported favorably on this kind of food, 
and I believe they are united in the opinion that it is an ex- 
cellent food, and, with a few feeds of liver and plucks for 
the purpose of giving a mixed diet, will prove eminently sat- 
isfactory. The cost of this food, based on the small lots put 
up in the past season, was one cent a pound. When prepared 
in large quantities this cost will be considerably reduced. 

This food was used at one of the Puget Sound stations 
with excellent results. In a slough into which several hundred 
thousand fish were placed at the time of the absorption of the 
yolk sac, sides of this salt salmon were laid on the bottom and 
as they softened up hundreds of young fry could be seen 
working on these pieces of salmon until they were entirely de- 



44 Pacific Fisheries Society 

voured. The fry remained in the slough under the attend- 
ant's care and observation, grew rapidly, and developed into 
splendid fish. The expense of labor under conditions of this 
character is reduced to a minimum, and in my opinion such 
work should be encouraged on all salmon streams where nat- 
ural conditions permit. 

In conclusion, I wish to emphasize my belief in the neces- 
sity of a mixed diet in feeding young salmon. Instead of any 
one food used continuously, no matter how good it may be, 
there should be a change occasionally to some other material. 
If the food consists of prepared fish, there ought to be an 
occasional feed of liver and mush. If this can be given as 
frequently as once a day it will be found to produce the most 
rapid growth. No matter how good any one food is, or how 
cheaply it may be prepared, best results will be achieved if 
a variety of food is used. 

DISCUSSION. 

President : This question of feeding the salmon fry opens up a 
good field for discussion, and I should like to hear what any members 
present may have to contribute from their experience along these lines. 
Mr. Shebley, what has been your experience in feeding salmon? 

Mr. Shebley : I think the food prepared by Mr. O'Malley, of a 
mixture of liver and mush, is good; it is good in very large quantities. 



PARANZELLA, OR TRAWL NET FISHING IN CALIFORNIA 

By N. B. ScoFiELD. 
Trawl net fishing is the catching of fish by means of a net 
dragged on the bottom of the sea by one or more boats. There 
are several styles of trawl nets in use in different parts of the 
world, but in all the net proper is of the same shape — a flat 
triangular bag of webbing with a wide but low mouth. From 
the wide mouth the net narrows rapidly to the cod end of the 
bag, which is so arranged that it can be unlaced to discharge 
the catch when it is hoisted aboard the operating boat. 

In the North Sea, where trawl fishing has been developed 
to a high state of perfection, the beam trawl was, until a few 
years ago, the style universally used. The beam, from which 
this trawl gets its name, is of wood or metal and is employed 
for the purpose of keeping the mouth of the net spread. The 
beam is held in a horizontal position a short distance off the 
ground by means of an iron frame or runner at each end. The 
beam supports the upper part of the mouth of the net and 
the lower edge of the mouth is kept next the bottom by a 
weighted ground line. The trawl is dragged by one line. 

As the trawl fisheries developed, larger vessels and larger 
nets were employed. But there was a limit to the length of 
the beam beyond which they could not go without making the 
outfit too difficult to handle. So there was developed the otter- 
board trawl, which is the one now almost universally used in 
deep-sea trawling. Instead of a beam, a couple of otter boards 
are employed to keep the mouth of the net open and ex- 
tended ; one board attached to each side of the mouth. A tow 
line is attached by a bridle to each of the two boards in such a 
manner that when the net is towed the boards, by their kite- 
like action, due to the resistance of the water and the bottom, 
on which one edge of the boards rest, extends or spreads the 
opening of the net, so that the two lines with which the net 
is operated can be dragged by one boat. When the otter trawl 
is lifted the boards come near together, thus making the net 
easier to operate than a beam trawl, and a much greater spread 
of net can be obtained. Trawls of this type now employed 



46 Pacific Fisheries Society 

have a spread of 75 to 100 feet, and some of the larger ones 
have a spread of considerably more than 100 feet. 

A third type of trawl is one more primitive than either of 
the ones just described. It was doubtless developed from a 
beach seine or bag net, but instead of being dragged on to a 
beach it is dragged on the bottom, in deep water, a boat towing 
each end. This method was introduced into California by the 
Italian fishermen about the year 1877, and it is still the only 
method of trawling in the state. The nets are known here as 
paranzellas, and the fishery as the paranzella fishery. When 
these nets were first introduced they were operated by small 
sail boats and were necessarily of small dimensions, and were 
dragged within San Francisco Bay and in the shallow water 
along shore just outside the harbor. Later, about the year 
1888, steam tugs and larger nets were employed and the San 
Francisco paranzella fishery was soon in the hands of one or 
two companies. 

With the development of the gas engine, the lateen sail of 
the fishing boats gave way to gasoline as a motive power, and 
with these "power boats" the fishermen began again to use the 
small paranzella nets ; not near San Francisco but in Monterey 
Bay and in the southern part of the state. 

San Francisco Fishery. — At the present time the San Fran- 
cisco fishery is conducted by three companies, which operate 
3 and 4 nets. Two steam tugs, which average about 75 feet 
long and about 30 tons register, are used for each net. 

The nets are made in San Francisco and are constructed 
of heavy cotton twine. The forward part of the bag is of 
about 4 inch mesh, the middle part still smaller and the cod 
end is of much heavier twine and a mesh of 1^ inches. In 
fishing position they spread about 50 feet. The tugs work 
in pairs and steer on parallel courses, each towing one end of 
the net. Occasionally two nets are towed by three tugs, one 
tug in the center towing an end of two nets. The ''drags" are 
made either with or against the current ; otherwise the net 
would drift sidewise and not fish properly. Two drags are 
usually made each day, frequently only one, and the duration 
of each is ll^ to 2 hours. 



Second Annual Meeting 47 

Fishing Grounds. — The fishing is practically all done out- 
side the three mile limit and in from 25 to 55 fathoms of 
water. While there is an expanse of apparently good fishing 
bottom ten miles wide and nearly fifty miles long, the boats 
have for years fished mainly in two localities : one 4 to 8 
miles S. W. of Point Reyes, the other about 8 miles south of 
the lightship off the harbor entrance. The boats leave port 
each morning at 4 a. m., and return in the evening, making a 
trip each day of the week with the exception of Saturday. 

The Catch. — About 90 per cent, of the edible fish caught 
are "soles," sand-dabs and flounders ; the balance of the catch 
includes sharks, skates, rock-cod, hake, tom-cod, California 
halibut, king-fish and coal fish. The local term "sand-dab" 
applies to the small species of flounders, but more particularly 
to Citharichthys sordidus. The term "flounder" applies to 
only one species, the variegated finned California flounder, 
Platichthys stellatiis. The rest of the species of flounders are 
called "soles" in this locality. 

During the two or three months of winter the catch is not 
so large on account of stormy weather. The fish too are ap- 
parently not so plentiful during this time, and it is the belief 
of the fishermen that they move out into deeper water during 
the period of rough weather. During the rest of the year an 
average catch for one net is about 125 boxes, or 10,000 pounds, 
of edible fish per day, or about 3,000 pounds for each hour of 
dragging. The catch of the three companies, estimated 
roughly, exceeds 6,000,000 pounds of edible fish a year. Com- 
paring the abundance of fish on these fishing grounds with 
those in the North Sea, the fish are much more numerous here 
for an equal area of bottom. A six hour drag in the North 
Sea with a much larger net takes but few more fish than a two 
hour drag here. 

After a drag is completed with one of the paranzella nets, 
it is hauled in by steam winches and lifted aboard one of the 
boats by means of a derrick. Frequently the weight of the fish 
is so great that part of them have to be previously removed 
with a long handled dip net to avoid tearing the net. The fish 
by the time they are landed on deck are mostly dead, being 
either smothered or crushed by the great weight in the net. 



48 Pacific Fisheries Society 

The fish are next sorted ; the inedible and immature, un- 
marketable ones being thrown in the sea. Those retained are 
placed in lockers. Small sharks or dog fish constitute the bulk 
of the inedible catch and they are not retained even for ferti- 
lizer. Skates are quite plentiful usually, but only a few can 
be disposed of for food. Hake, an inferior, soft-meated fish, 
for which there is little demand, are caught from March until 
early summer, often in larger numbers than can be disposed of 
as food. The rest of the catch that is not utilized is made up 
of immature, edible fish that are too small to market. These 
are almost wholly "sand-dabs" and "soles." 

Detailed counts of the fish retained and those thrown 
away have not been made, but careful estimates were made 
which are approximately correct. The weight of the fish 
thrown back constituted 20 to 25 per cent of the entire catch. 
Of the edible fish 10 per cent were thrown back. The number 
of immature soles and sand-dabs thrown away compared with 
the number saved was about 1 to 6. A few edible crabs are 
taken, but in the deep water where the paranzellas work they 
are usually of good size. The number they take is insignifi- 
cant. The largest number observed was 50 in a 2 hour drag. 

The fish caught by the paranzellas are not cleaned on 
board nor is any ice used. They are unloaded into boxes in 
the evening at the dock and in the early morning they are 
hauled to the company's wholesale market where the bulk of 
them are turned over to other wholesale and retail dealers. 
Part are cleaned for their retail trade, or are iced and shipped 
to out of town customers. The wholesale price of soles and 
sand-dabs in cjuantity varies from 1 to 3 cents per pound. The 
consumer pays the retailer from 10 to 20 cents. 

Effect of Fishing. — The paranzella nets operate off shore, 
where they do not interfere with any other net or line fish- 
ing. The crab fishermen have claimed that they are the cause 
of the growing scarcity of crabs, and they have brought the 
other usual charges against these nets, such as : They destroy 
the spawn of the bottom fishes ; they destroy the feeding 
grounds by dragging over the bottom ; they destroy great 
quantities of young fish. 



Second Annual Meeting 49 

As to destroying the spawn, investigations made elsewhere 
show that the eggs of all these fish float at or near the sur- 
face and therefore could not be destroyed by the nets. As 
to destroying the feeding grounds, it has been shown by other 
investigations that even where they have large otter boards 
dragging on the bottom, they do not materially denude the 
bottom of organisms on which the fish may depend for food. 
As to whether they are unduly destructive to crabs, the charge 
is undoubtedly true for the inshore fishing in shallow water 
but not for the deep water three miles ofif shore. The few 
undersized, or female, crabs they take can be returned alive 
to the water, but they do not usually return them as carefully 
as they might. The growing scarcity of crabs is much more 
likely due to over-fishing by the crab fishermen themselves. 
The large per cent, of tagged crabs recaptured by the crab 
nets shows they are being over fished. As to the charge of 
destroying great numbers of immature fish, they no doubt did 
in former years destroy great numbers of immature fish when 
they fished in shallow water near shore, but investigations 
have shown that the number destroyed where they fish now 
in deep water is not excessive. 

In the recently published results of the trawl investigations 
on our Atlantic Coast, it is shown that the trawls take the 
same kind of fish that are taken by the long-line fishermen, 
and in addition take a great many of the young of what may be 
called long-line fish, such as cod and haddock. The only fish 
they added to the market were soles and flounders, and they 
constituted only 4 per cent of the whole. The committee of 
investigation recommends confining the trawls within certain 
limits, where they will not interfere with the line fisheries. 

Our conditions off San Francisco are not the same. The 
operations of the paranzellas do not interfere seriously with 
any other fishery. The great bulk of the catch is soles and 
sand-dabs, which would not be caught by other methods. The 
small soles down to 6 inches in length are utilized for food. 
The paranzellas have developed a new field and with otter 
trawls this field could be greatly extended if the market de- 
manded it. Under the present law these nets cannot fish 
within three miles of shore, and with this three mile strip along 



50 Pacific Fisheries Society 

the shore and the bays as refuges for the fish there is no 
immediate danger of injuring the fish supply. This method 
of fishing, or any other that extends its operations to the open 
sea, should be encouraged. 

At Santa Cruz paranzella fishing has been carried on for a 
few years with gasoline power boats. The nets are smaller 
than those used at San Francisco but they fish in about the 
same depth of water, about four miles from shore to the 
west and north of Santa Cruz Point. At the present time there 
are four outfits, each of which catches about 2.000 pounds a 
day. The character of their catch is the same as at San 
Francisco. Most of the fish are shipped to San Francisco 
wholesale fish dealers. 

Until recently, gasoline powered paranzella outfits have 
operated out of San Diego and San Pedro in southern Cali- 
fornia. At one time as high as 24 nets were in operation, fish- 
ing mostly in shallow water near shore. Their catch was al- 
most entirely California halibut, but their destruction of the 
young halibut was enormous. Three-fourths of their catch 
in weight was the young of this species, too small for the 
market and entirely wasted. For an average catch of 2,000 
pounds of fish of edible size, 6,000 pounds of the young were 
destroyed. It is believed they have seriously injured the hali- 
but supply in southern California for some time to come. 
Laws have just been passed prohibiting the possession of a 
paranzella net in southern California and a minimum size 
limit of four pounds has been put on the California halibut. 

As to the future of trawl fishing in California, it is safe to 
say the otter trawl will in time be adopted, for it can be oper- 
ated more economically and will do better work. It can be 
operated at night and land the fish fresh for the morning 
market. The paranzella cannot very well work at night. The 
otter trawl can work in much deeper water, thus greatly ex- 
tending the fishing area. They can work near submerged 
rocks and close to rough bottom by virtue of the fact that the 
net follows directly behind the boat and by taking soundings 
the rocks or rough bottom s are detected before the net reaches 
them and the course altered or the net raised. By fishing ad- 
jacent to rough bottom they will catch a greater variety of 



Second Annual Meeting 51 

fish. They can work in the stormy weather of winter when 
the fish bring a good price. The boats would be larger and 
more seaworthy and have better accommodations for the crew. 
They have room to clean and ice the fish at sea and on that 
account can make a longer trip. An otter trawl of a size suffi- 
cient to do the work of one of the San Francisco paranzella 
outfits could be operated at two-thirds the expense. 

California will never be the home of a great trawling in- 
dustry, for the trawl fishing grounds are too limited. On 
account of the rapid deepening of the ocean floor to the west 
of the continent, the bottom suitable for trawling is a very 
narrow strip. This strip extends from Point Conception to 
our northern boundary, but only in two or three places will 
it exceed five miles in width and most of it is one to three 
miles wide. Otter trawls from San Francisco could fish this 
entire distance if the market would take the fish. The three 
San Francisco paranzella outfits and the four smaller outfits 
at Santa Cruz, with their comparatively primitive methods, 
can for most of the year easily over-supply the market. By 
adopting the improved methods of handling fish, in use else- 
where, interior markets could be reached. But our people are 
not fish eaters and unless the public takes more kindly to a fish 
diet, our trawling grounds will be sufficient for many years 
to come, as in the past forty years they have been only 
scratched in two or three places. 



OCEANWARD TREND OF OUR NORTHWEST FISHERIES 

By John N. Cobb. 

W'hile the fisheries of the Pacific Coast are enormous in 
the aggregate, yet an odd feature is the fact that they are 
largely restricted to a few species, and are carried on mainly 
in protected waters. If the salmon, cod, halibut, herring and 
tuna are eliminated, the fisheries of this coast sink into insig- 
nificance. The contrary is true of the Atlantic coast, where 
the Gadidge, mackerel, herring, shad, alewives, bluefish, men- 
haden, weakfish, red snapper, lobster, oyster, clam, etc., etc., 
form large and important fisheries. 

The restriction of our present fisheries to a few species 
is mainly due to the overwhelming preponderance of the latter 
having largely closed our markets to less familiar species which 
are available. As the demand for fresh fish increases, more 
and more use will be made of our present largely dormant 
fishery resources, especially those to be found in the ocean 
adjacent to our coasts. 

The coasts of Washington, British Columbia and Alaska 
are deeply indented by numerous bays, straits and sounds, 
while along the coast of the latter two sections are to be found 
hundreds of large and small islands, and all of these together 
form the largest area of protected waters to be found along 
the continent of North America. As the great schools of sal- 
mon passed through these on their way to the spawning 
grounds at the headwaters of the rivers debouching into them, 
while they formed ideal feeding grounds for the herring, smelt, 
tomcod, etc., they early became, and are still, the chief fishing 
grounds resorted to by our fishermen. 

For a number of years our fisher folk were content to 
confine their operations largely within this restricted area, but 
as the demand for fish increased, more efficient forms of ap- 
paratus and appliances for handling same were devised and 
the geographical range extended, until at the present time 
considerable of their operations are carried on in the open 
waters adjacent to our coast, where by meeting the fish as they 
are heading in, or intercepting the schools passing by, a better 



54 Pacific Fisheries Society 

grade of fish is obtained, while the length of the fishing season 
is considerably increased. 

It is barely possible that this extension of fishing range may 
work some havoc amongst the salmon which will be sought 
after during a greater part of the year, but, on the other hand, 
it will vastly extend and increase the produce of the other 
fisheries, many of which have, so far, been but slightly worked. 

The Salmon Fisheries. — For many years our salmon fisher- 
men devoted the major part of their energies to the catching 
of the fish in the bays and sounds adjacent to the rivers, and 
in the latter, as the fish were on their way to the spawning 
grounds at the headwaters of the streams. As the prepared 
products became better known the demand for the raw pro- 
duct increased. In order to supply this larger boats and nets 
were employed, more efficient machinery was devised for 
handling the latter, while the fishermen somewhat extended 
the range of their operations. 

Some few years ago it was discovered on Puget Sound and 
a few other places, that king, spring or chinook salmon, and 
also the coho, or silverside, would take the hook during the 
spring months. At first the small catch made in this manner 
was disposed of in the fresh fish markets, but the rapid exten- 
sion of the mild curing industry created a heavy demand for the 
feeding kings, and the industry soon became a permanent one. 
As the demand increased the fishermen extended their field of 
operations. At the present time the Puget Sound trollers meet 
the fish off the entrance to the Strait of Fuca, the Columbia 
River trollers on the bar, while many of those in Southeast 
Alaska fish on the Forrester Island ground, which is in the 
open ocean. 

In the early days the salmon fishing season in any one 
region seldom lasted more than four months. With the new 
methods salmon have been taken in every month of the year 
in Southeast Alaska and Puget Sound, although the fish are 
usually in quite deep water during the winter months and but 
little attention is then paid to them. 

The success of the hook and line men in finding king and 
silver salmon encouraged the purse seiners to go out farther 
and farther to meet the oncoming spawning fish, with the result 



Second Annual Meeting 55 

that to-day the first purse seining by the fishermen of Puget 
Sound is usually done off the entrance to the Strait of Fuca, 
while the Columbia river gill netters fish outside the bar off 
the entrance to the river, some few miles to sea. In Bering 
Sea, where at one time all the fishing was carried on in the 
bays and rivers, a few purse seiners now operate in the open 
sea and the number gives promise of rapidly increasing. In 
Southeast Alaska the trend of fishing operations is steadily 
oceanward, and it is probable that in the course of a decade 
most of the plants will be on the outer fringe of the islands. 

The fish when they first reach the coast are sleek and 
plump, nature having provided for the latter in order to sus- 
tain the fish through its long fast in fresh water, and while 
they do not lose much of this until they get into the streams, 
they are undoubtedly better for canning, salting, etc., the 
nearer they are caught to the ocean. The chief advantage of 
the extension of the fishing area lies in the lengthening of the 
period during which the packing plants can operate, thus in- 
creasing their productiveness and profitableness. 

It is possible that eventually the fishermen may, through 
the invention of newer forms of fishery apparatus, or the 
improvement of the present forms, be enabled to follow the 
salmon to their, at present, unknown resort in the ocean, from 
whence most of them reappear when maturity has been reached 
as mysteriously as they disappeared when their instinct led 
them to the open sea to spend the major part of their active 
life. 

The Halibut Fisheries. — Halibut fishing on this coast may 
be said to have begun commercially in 1888, when the schoon- 
ers "Mollie Adams" and "Oscar and liattie," which had re- 
cently arrived on the coast from Gloucester, Mass., began fish- 
ing on Flattery bank. Previous to this time the fishery was 
restricted largely to Indians living on Puget Sound and along 
the coast, who consumed their own catch in large measure. 

Investigations during the years 1888 and 1889 disclosed the 
presence of halibut at various places along the British Colum- 
bia coast, especially around the Queen Charlotte Islands. 

The industry languished for several years, due to the lack 
of markets and the excessive rates charged by the trans- 



56 racll'ic fisheries Society 

continental railroads, but about 18*)4 eastern fish dealers bej^an 
to evince an interest in tlie I'acilic banks, and soon established 
stations and (leets on this coast, and as they were ])owerful 
enouj;h to obtain reasonable rates from the transcontinental 
railroads, the industry was soon put upon a profitable basis, 
this result bcinji; much aided by the heavy decline in the i)ro- 
duction of halibut from the Allanlic banks, which had been 
j^oinj^ on for some lime. 

b'rom this time on the business rapidly expanded. As the 
banks nearest Tujjjet Sound |)()rts bejijan to show sij^ns of ex- 
haustion the fishermen extended their fishiufj; operaticms farth- 
er and farther from home, until fmally a portion of the fleet 
was lishinji; in the upper part of the (iulf of Alaska. In the 
meantime a small (leet of liritish Columbia vessels, and a com- 
paratively larj^e fleet of small Alaska vessels, had taken up 
the fishery also, and worked larj^ely ui)on the banks adjacent 
to their home ports, althouj;h as the Uritish ('olumbia banks 
became less and less productive the local fleet worked more 
and more u|)on the Alaska banks. At the present time it is 
probable that about three-fourths of the halibut cauj^ht on the 
Pacific Coast comes from banks in or adjacent to American 
territory. 

The Paget Sound fleet has found that fishing so far from 
its base is an expensive undertaking, as larger vessels, which 
are correspondingly more expensive and re(iuire larger crews, 
are needed for fishing on the more distant, and quite stormy 
northern banks, and a desire to confine their operations to 
points nearer home has been steadily growing. 

Flattery Hank, which is located from close in shore to 
some 12 or 15 miles off Cape Flattery, had, as previously noted, 
been known for some years. Halibut are usually abundant 
here from early in the spring until the middle of June. 

In 188S and in 1889 the U. S. P.ureau of iMsheries steamer 
Albatross made some investigations off" the Oregon and Wash- 
ington coasts and delimited certain areas which appeared to 
be suitable for halibut, but found very few of these fish on 
them. Owing to this latter fact the matter was dropped. 
1 lowever, an occasional small vessel would run out a few miles 
from shore and pick up a small cargo of halibut, but owing to 



Second Annual Meeting 57 

winds from the land in certain seasons of the year, and the 
difficuhy of getting into the few harbors, owing to the rough 
seas which generally prevailed on their bars a considerable por- 
tion of the time, also the difficulty of shipping the fish fresh 
to the markets owing to the very meager railroad facilities and 
the high freight and express rates, the business never thrived. 

In 1914 the Albatross was once more assigned to this work. 
Despite the fact that the vessel had to abandon the work tem- 
porarily during part of the summer, considerable was accom- 
plished. 

The net results of the 1914 work of the Albatross were, 
(1) a better delimitation of the shoal area adjacent to the 
Oregon coast, (2) halibut shown to be on certain areas in 
considerable abundance during the investigation, (3) large 
scallops found off Cape Kiwanda in 30 to 40 fathoms, and 
(4) sand-dabs and other food fishes found in abundance. 

Early in May (1915), one of the Seattle halibut schooners, 
finding halibut temporarily scare on the Flattery Bank, made 
a prospecting trij) down the coast. When off the Columbia 
river she found halibut in abundance and speedily secured a 
full fare. The news quickly spread and soon a large fleet 
was working on the new bank and on the banks between here 
and Heceta Bank. With the exception of short periods when 
considerable "mushy" fish were to be found in the catch, the 
vessels caught large quantities of fine fish until late in June 
when, owing to the large proportion of "mushy" fish in the 
catch, most of them abandoned the region until a more propi- 
tious season. 

The Columbia Bank, which most of the fishermen claim is 
a new one, lies directly west of the mouth of the river, about 
15 to 25 miles from land. So far as delimited, the bank has the 
shape of the letter U, with the open end seaward. Later in- 
vestigations may somewhat change this shape. 

The Albatross is now completing the work she began in 
1914. A strong effort has been made by certain of us to have 
the energies of the vessel directed toward a search for banks 
supposed to lie anywhere from 15 to 500 miles off the Wash- 
ington coast, and this will be done as soon as the Columbia 
Bank is completely surveyed. 



58 Pacific Fisheries Society 

For a number of years mariners and fishermen have been 
reporting facts and incidents which seemed to indicate the 
probable existence of banks off the Northwest coast. Some 
of the halibut fishermen point to the movement of halibut 
on Flattery Bank as indicating the strong probability of the 
existence of such banks. Boats fishing on the westward edge 
of Flattery report that schools of plump, fine fish frequently 
appear on the bank, take the hook readily for a few days, and 
then disappear, to be succeeded by another school in a day or 
two. As vessels fishing on the eastern side of the bank do not 
generally encounter these particular schools, at least not until 
later than those on the western edge, while vessels fishing off 
Vancouver Island rarely find halibut in abundance, the fish 
must either come from the west, northwest or south. As the 
fishing in May last showed wide areas without fish between the 
Flattery Bank and the bank off the mouth of the Columbia 
river, and still other gaps between it and the banks farther 
south, the halibut could not come from the south. While hali- 
but are to be found on nearly all the banks adjacent to the 
Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands, lying northwest 
of Flattery, they are probably too far away to be the source 
from whence come the Flattery schools. 

This would, according to the fishermen, leave only the 
region to the westward of Flattery as the direction from 
whence the fish come, and it is to be hoped that this matter 
will be settled for all time by the Albatross this summer. 

It is possible that halibut may be more abundant on the 
Alaska cod banks than is apparent at present. Investigation 
has shown that the species is to be found scattered over nearly 
the whole area of the various banks. Even at the present time 
a portion of the Portlock Bank is resorted to at certain sea- 
sons by a few of the larger vessels and halibut found in 
abundance. 

I had an intimate connection with the cod fisheries pro- 
secuted in the North Pacific during 1912 and 1913, and was 
thus enabled to carry on observations at first hand. Halibut 
were fairly abundant on the inshore banks, but the station fish- 
ermen brought in only those needed for cod bait. The real 
abundance of these fish was brought forcibly to my attention 



Second Annual Meeting 59 

in August of 1913. I had been making some experiments 
with gill nets for cod, and on the evening of the 20th set, 
near Pirate Cove, six of these, each 125 yards long, 7^" 
stretch mesh, and 15 meshes deep. 

Upon lifting them the next morning I found 180 cod and 
60 halibut meshed or tangled in them. That such a large 
number of halibut should be taken in nets so unsuited for 
their capture, and on ground where it was not supposed they 
would be found, is surprising and indicates that the fish are 
even more abundant on the inshore banks of Alaska than any- 
one had dreamed of. Halibut on the inshore banks is a sure 
indication of a greater abundance on the offshore banks, as 
it is their habit to make shoreward migrations in search of 
food. 

The fact that their abundance on the offshore banks has 
not been physically demonstrated before is due mainly to the 
fact that for a number of years the cod banks in the North 
Pacific, east of Sannak Bank, have been but little resorted to 
by the vessels, as fish were more easily procured on Sannak 
and Davidson banks and on the banks in Bering Sea. An- 
other reason is that the cod fishermen use hand lines in their 
operations, and as fishing with these in waters deeper than 50 
fathoms is slow and tedious work, they generally refuse to 
work in the deeper waters, in which the halibut are more apt 
to be found in abundance. 

The Albatross has made several investigations of these 
banks, once for halibut, but fishing trials made by a vessel over 
such a wide area as she covered must necessarily be infrec[uent 
and of very short duration, thus vitiating their value. The 
most conclusive part of her investigation, when taken in con- 
junction with the known facts, was the development of the fact 
that the banks were generally suitable to support halibut life. 

At present these banks lie at too great a distance from 
Seattle to permit of profitable exploitation, but should the 
banks nearer home become depleted the price obtained will 
doubtless increase sufficiently to justify the fleets visiting them. 

The Herring Fisheries. — At the present time practically 
all of our herring fisheries are carried on in the numerous pro- 
tected bays and sounds which indent the Northwest coast line 



60 Pacific Fisheries Society 

from the Columbia River to Alaska. Here the fishing season 
is wholly dependent upon the fish themselves. Herring are 
notoriously erratic in their movements, appearing with the 
greatest regularity at a certain spot for a season, two seasons, 
or for years. A typical example of this was at Yakutat Bay, 
Alaska. The herring had appeared here in large numbers 
each season for a number of years. Around 1900 several 
plants for salting them were in operation on the bay, when a 
season or two later the fish failed to appear and since then 
only an occasional straggler has been noticed. 

Even when the fish appear in the inshore waters the fishing 
season is considerably curtailed for two reasons. In Alaska 
the fish spawn from May to July. For a considerable time 
after spawning they are thin and of not much commercial 
value. In the same region, during July and August, the stom- 
achs of the herring are filled with "red feed" (a small crusta- 
cean). Should the fish be killed while this food is in its 
stomach some acid in the "feed" will eat away the fish's belly, 
causing a disfiguring appearance which renders it unsalable, 
although perfectly wholesome. This difficulty can be over- 
come by holding the live fish in a trap or pot until they have 
emptied their stomachs, when there will be no further danger 
of disfigurement. 

In Europe, where the herring fisheries have been prosecuted 
for centuries, and are of immense commercial importance, 
most of the fishing is carried on in the open sea, and, in many 
sections, at considerable distances from shore. Here a much 
better grade of fish is found, the schools are in greater abun- 
dance, and a much longer fishing season can be had than by 
waiting for certain of the schools to visit the protected waters. 
Eventually, as the demand for pickled herring becomes greater, 
Alaska will be one of the chief producing centers of the world, 
but before this can occur our fishermen will have to seek the 
fish in the open ocean instead of waiting for the fish to come to 
them, as at present. 

In certain of the harbors of the Shumagin Islands, Alaska, 
occur runs of herring, the majority of which will average 
between three-quarters and one pound apiece. A run of her- 
ring of the same size also enters Cook Inlet, and it is probable 



Second Annual Meeting 61 

that it is the outer fringe of this school that touches at the 
Shumagin Islands on its way to the Inlet, and that if a proper 
power vessel, with purse seines, were to seek in the open ocean 
off this group for the main school a large quantity of these 
magnificent fish could be secured each season. It is also quite 
probable that if sought after diligently these large herring 
would be found along other sections of our Alaska coast. 

During the fiscal year 1914 there were imported into the 
United States 110,413,883 pounds of salt herring, valued at 
$3,622,176. During the calendar year 1914 our Pacific Coast 
fishermen packed approximately 9,000 barrels, weighing 1,800,- 
000 pounds, for food purposes. This shows clearly the enor- 
mous increase that would be necessary in order to supply the 
domestic market alone, without taking into consideration the 
great herring markets of the world that are open to our pack- 
ers. As compared with some countries of Europe the herring 
consumption of the United States is very slight. 

The Cod Fisheries. — At the present time there have been 
surveyed, or we have an approximate knowledge of the exist- 
ence of some 40,000 square miles of banks on which cod pre- 
dominate. In the present state of the demand for Pacific cod 
these are more than ample to supply it for some years to come, 
but there is hardly a doubt that diligent investigation would 
disclose still other extensive banks. With the exception of an 
isolated observation here and there, no effort has been made 
to seek for cod banks north and south of the Aleutian Islands, 
west of Unalaska Island. The few isolated observations ex- 
tant in this region nearly all show the presence of cod, and it 
is to be hoped that the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries will some 
time in the near future undertake a comprehensive survey of 
this region. The same is also true of a large part of Bering 
Sea. 

Miscellaneous Fishes. — One of the chief facts brought out 
by the investigations of the Albatross off our Northwest Coast 
was the presence of several species of delicious deep-sea sole, 
species which would enrich the fishermen were they found in as 
convenient proximity to the coasts of the nations bordering 
on the North Sea; various species of rockfish (Genus Sehas- 
todes), which make excellent food; flounders, black cod, and 



62 Pacific Fisheries Society 

a large deep-sea scallop. Even before an extensive demand 
for these species has been worked up in the sections tributary 
to the Coast, some of our cold storage plants will be freezing 
the sole, and possibly other species, and shipping them East, 
and possibly to Europe. 

In the course of time one of the favorite resorts of our 
fishermen will be an extensive plateau off the northern Oregon 
coast, upon which many of the present neglected species 
abound, and upon which otter and beam trawls could be 
worked easily. 

DISCUSSION. 

President: Has anyone any remark to make or any question to ask? 

Prof. Weymouth: May I ask a question? Are there any laws 
regulating the halibut fishing, or is there any attempt to make laws to 
apply outside of the three-mile Hmit? 

Mr. Cobb: There are no laws affecting halibut fishing in the North- 
west. 

Mr. Scofield : Those "mushy" halibut, are they retained or thrown 
away? 

Mr. Cobb : When you take a halibut out of the water, it is impos- 
sible to tell whether it is "mushy" or not, as the "mushy" appearance 
does not manifest itself until two or three days after the fish is placed 
in the ice. Small hnnps appear in the flesh and these break. As the 
fish are not taken out of the ice until the home port is reached it is 
impossible for the fishermen to tell whether the catch has any "mushy" 
fish in it until the cargo is broken out. The "mushy" ones are all 
thrown away. 

Mr. Scofield: What percentage is "mushy," and what is the theory 
of the cause? 

Mr. Cobb: In 1914, when quite a number of vessels fished on the 
banks off the Oregon coast, the proportion was 45 per cent. Fortunately 
for the fishermen, there seemed to be a few spots where the proportion 
was much less. But when it reaches 45 per cent., unless the price is 
high, it is not profitable to catch them. With the catch divided into 
first and second grade halibut by the buyers and then these "mushy" 
ones which have to be thrown away, it is almost impossible to make a 
profit when the proportion of the latter reaches 45 per cent. We find 
the same proportion prevails on the northern banks as on the southern 
banks. The fishermen get them in all seasons, l)Ut more often in sum- 
mer than in winter. This may be due to the fact that the catch is 
vastly larger in summer than in winter. But we know that at times 
the proportion is larger on the southern banks than on the northern. 

Dr. Evermann : Is the percentage as large as it is on the east 
coast ? 

Mr. Cobb : We have no record of the figures on the east coast. 

Dr. Evermann: Is a "mushy" fish unsuited for food, or is it objec- 
tionable simply because it does not present a desirable appearance? 

Mr. Cobb : When you cut it the flesh is mushy and follows the knife, 
and then you find sac-like bodies in the muscular tissue, of the con- 
sistency of hard fat, which, when the fishermen are about ready to land 
their cargo, break and a whitish fluid flows from them. The fishermen 
always throw them overboard. 



Second Annual Meeting 63 

Dr. Evermann : No one knows whether the mushiness disappears 
later? 

Mr. Cobb : As the fishermen leave almost immediately on another 
trip they are unable to hold them long enough to lind out anything in 
this regard. I think they might find out something of value if they 
would experiment a little with them. 

Prof. Smith : Mr. Thompson, of Stanford University, is working 
on some of those fish now. He could not determine any cause for the 
"mushy" condition, so far as I know, but he is still working on them 
and may find results later. 

Mr. Cobb : It is an expensive matter to the fishermen of the North- 
west coast when you throw out 45 per cent, of a catch of eighty to one 
hundred thousand pounds of fish. 

Dr. Eraser : Is there any probability of its passing away at any one 
season of the year? 

Mr. Cobb : It appears at all seasons of the year, apparently. 

Mr. Heacock : May I ask a question ? At the time these fish are 
taken are they spawning fish? 

Mr. Cobb : We know very little about the spawning habits of the 
halibut. I do not think the spawning has anything to do with it, 
unless the fish spawn all the year around, as these "mushy" fish are found 
at all seasons. But the known life history of the halibut so far is very 
meager. 

Mr. Heacock : They spoke of a condition among the halibut at the 
time of spawning. 

Mr. Cobb : I do not think it has anything to do with the halibut 
spawning season, as they find the "mushy" fish at all seasons of the j'ear. 



EXTENDING THE RANGE OF THE GOLDEN TROUT 

By A. D. Ferguson 

The very title of this paper provokes the question: Why? 
Based, no doubt, on the fact that the true golden trout has its 
original habitat in but one isolated section of all the vast Sierra 
Nevada range of mountains, there is a popular belief, shared 
in by some trained ichthyologists, that the golden trout, if 
placed under different environment, will quickly revert to some 
other type. 

In justification of an enterprise which has been carried for- 
ward through several years of sustained effort, it might be 
well to first discuss the question of utility ; in other words, 
what is to be gained by undertaking to establish the golden 
trout in new and distant waters? It is conceded by all who 
come in personal contact with the golden trout that they not 
only are incomparably beautiful, but that they are game as the 
gamest of all the trout family, a fine table fish, and if but given 
half a chance, very prolific. But, will they remain golden if 
taken from Volcano Creek and placed in waters far removed 
from the lava and volcanic tufa which lines the beds and banks 
of their native stream? 

Dr. Barton W. Evermann, in a bulletin. No. 595, entitled 
"The Golden Trout of the Southern High Sierras," which bul- 
letin was published in 1906 by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, 
calls the golden trout a distinct species. Dr. Evermann, in his 
bulletin, names the trout of Volcano Creek Salmo rooscvelti, 
and says that these are the true golden trout. Evidently, Dr. 
Evermann believed the type is permanently fixed, since he rec- 
ommended (page 30) that the barren waters of the Kern River 
region be stocked with golden trout, saying: "It would be 
extremely interesting to try the species in several streams and 
note the effects of the new environment. The possibility of 
adding such an attractive fish to the streams of other states is 
well worth a serious eft'ort.'' 

It may be presumptuous on the part of a layman, but, 
nevertheless, several years of experience while conducting 
various experiments with transplanted golden trout, makes me 



66 Pacific Fisheries Society 

bold to add to the eminent Dr. Evermann's conclusions some 
facts in the nature of supporting evidence. Whether or not 
the golden trout (this paper deals only with the Salmo roosc- 
vclti) are descended from the rainbow trout of Kern River, as 
intimated by Dr. Evermann (page 14 of his Bulletin), or are 
of mykiss origin, as classified by Dr. Jordan in the California 
Fish Commission's Biennial Report of 1903, may be an open 
question. Some experiments in the nature of radical changes 
in environment, which I am conducting in the mountains of 
Fresno County, may possibly enable our scientists to reach an 
unanimous conclusion. Personally, I hold to the belief that 
not only are the golden trout not descended from the rainbow 
species, but that their presence in Kern River antedates the 
existence of rainbow trout in Kern River, to which Volcano 
Creek is tributary. A theory which involves questions of geol- 
ogy as well as of ichthyology and which, frankly, is going far 
for a layman. 

To the popular opinion that the golden trout of Volcano 
Creek owes its brilliance to the presence of similar colors in 
the volcanic rock and tufa through which the stream flows, 
many facts are opposed. As against this theory of protective 
coloring there is, for instance, the fact that only about one-half 
the stream's course is through volcanic formation ; the upper 
waters being wholly in the typical granite of the Whitney 
range. Yet, there appears to be no variation of type as 
between the fish of the upper and lower waters. Stronger evi- 
dence that the Salmo roosei'elti is not dependent on its sur- 
roundings for its color is found in the fact that it has appar- 
ently lost none of its coloring when established in new waters 
far removed from its native habitat. The record of the estab- 
lishment of the golden trout in the theretofore barren waters 
of Cottonwood Lakes goes back twenty-four years. A few 
golden trout carried in the year 1896, by S. L. N. Ellis, now a 
deputy of the State Fish and Game Commission, from Volcano 
Creek across the Kern-Kaweah Divide and planted in a branch 
of the Kaweah River, established themselves in their new 
home. Incidentally, they afforded a startling surprise to Mr. 
Walter Fry, Superintendent of Sequoia National Park, who 
discovered their presence in the North fork of the Kaweah 



Second Annual Meeting 67 

some thirteen years after their involuntary migration. No one 
having in the meantime followed uj) Mr. I'lllis' experiment, and 
Mr, Fry never having heard of it, he naturally thought he had 
made a puzzling discovery. The explanatif)n came out when 
Fry reported the matter to the Fresno district office of the 
Fish and Game Commission. By the way, is it not possible 
that many puzzling j)hcnomena in connection with the exist- 
ence of various species of fish in unlooked for localities can be 
solved by discovering a forgotten record of some man's activi- 
ties? In the Fresno office of the Fish and Game Commission 
there is a mass of evidence having to do with old-time activi- 
ties of the pioneers of the mountains, who carried live fish long 
distances to stock barren waters. Many aged pioneers have 
contributed, by letter, their quota of information which has 
enabled us to account for many confusing situations. 

h'or the past six years the State Fish and Game Commis- 
sion, through its Fresno office, has been systematically planting 
the barren streams of the Whitney region and of the high Sier- 
ras of Tulare and Fresno counties with golden trout stock 
from Volcano Creek. While the time is short for definite con- 
clusions, the transi)lanted fish are thus far apparently remain- 
ing true to type. It should be noted that all these plants have 
been made in waters which are in granite formation, entirely 
unstained by the presence of any mineral. 

Since golden trout have never been artificially propagated, 
we have used in our work of transplanting them into new 
waters, adult fish drawn from the bountiful supply in Volcano 
Creek. The enteri)rise has been carried on by the pack-horse 
method of transportation, since the source of supply and the 
waters to be reached are far beyond any existing wagon road. 
We have demonstrated, however, that the adult golden trout 
can, with proj^er care, be transported to any part of the United 
States, since we have successfully carried them on the backs 
of pack-mules for as many as fourteen consecutive days. To 
be carried in cans, on the backs of mules, over rough mountain 
trails, is a trying test of the hardihood of the golden trout. 
We early learned that to land our fish in good condition at the 
end of a long pack-horse carry, it was necessary that the fish 
be not carried more than six or seven hours out of each twenty- 



68 Pacific Fisheries Society 

four. For this period of time the fish will hold themselves 
well away from the sides of the can, regardless of how rough 
may be the gait of the pack-mule. After about seven hours 
the fish are liable to become exhausted and are injured by 
being thrown against the sides of the can in which they are 
being carried. From the Volcano Creek northward through 
the mountains of Tulare, Fresno and Madera counties, there 
are hundreds of streams which drain the Sierra summit and 
which were all naturally barren of any fish life whatever. This 
condition is, in a way, fortunate, since it permits of the estab- 
lishment of the golden trout in new waters where the stock 
can always remain pure. And thus the fear once expressed 
when Volcano Creek was the only source of supply that these 
incomparable trout might become extinct, is forever allayed. 
Cut off by high falls from the possibility of other species of 
trout ascending these streams, there is no danger of the golden 
trout losing their identity in these waters by mixing with other 
species. Incidentally, it is a notable fact that the waters nat- 
urally inhabited by golden trout are the only waters in the 
section of the mountains here described isolated, by reason of 
falls, from the fishes of the main channels, in which fish of any 
variety were found when the mountains were first invaded by 
white men. 

Whether or not the golden trout will maintain their identity 
through many generations if placed in waters in which there 
are other varieties of trout, is yet to be demonstrated. Mr. 
W. H. Shebley, Superintendent of the California State Hatch- 
eries, readily secured a hybrid by cross-fertilization between 
golden trout and rainbow trout. Since many of the golden 
trout which are now becoming established in the Kings River 
and San Joaquin water-sheds must naturally eventually work 
down into the waters now inhabited by rainbow and other 
trouts, opportunity will, some day, be afforded investigators 
to find out if indeed the different species will voluntarily be- 
come hybridized. 

The success which has met our efforts in transplanting 
adult fish might well be worth considering by the Fish Com- 
missions of other states who would like to try experiments 
along similar lines. A hundred adult trout planted in good 



Second Annual Meeting 69 

condition will quickly populate a barren stream of considerable 
size. That the golden trout are wonderfully prolific is evi- 
denced by the fact that in our operations during the fall of 
1914 we took from the little stream which flows through Whit- 
ney Meadows 5,000 fish without apparently seriously diminish- 
ing the supply. Like other species, they attain large size when 
placed in new waters where there is an abundant food supply. 
DISCUSSION. 

President: Is there any discussion on Mr. Ferguson's paper? 

Dr. Evermann : The excellent paper by Mr. Ferguson interests 
me very much. The question of how the trout first got into Kern 
River is an exceedingly interesting one. I believe the ichthyologists 
are agreed as to the way in which trout came into western America. 
They are undoubtedly from the Orient, from Asia, and doubtless they 
came across the Bering Straits and the Aleutian Islands, and then came 
down the entire western coast, extending down to lower California. 

Now, at that time there may have been water connection that en- 
abled them to go into these various streams and systems. But for our 
present purpose we need to consider only how they got into Kern 
River and King's River. Whatever the conditions, we can assume they 
were conditions which permitted the fish to get into the streams, and 
at an early date in the history of those streams the trout no doubt ex- 
tended over all those streams where the temperature was suitable. That 
is, in the early history of those streams, there were no waterfalls. So 
the fish would get into the larger streams and then run up into the 
smaller ones. My own idea is that Kern River, some time in the past, 
became peopled with trout, and that the trout extended into such of 
the Kern River tributaries as possible, and as far as possible. But as 
the system became older and older, and certain volcanic conditions 
took place, barriers became established. 

Now, barriers were established in those streams in one of two ways: 
one, by wearing down, eroding; and the other by lava flow. The bar- 
riers in Volcano Creek were a combination of two causes, but chiefly 
the result of lava flow. 

Volcano Creek is eighteen to twenty miles long. About midway in 
the length of the stream are three or four cinder cones, cones or little 
volcanoes. The lava and the scoriae flowed from the volcanic crater, 
down the canyons and bed of the creek, and most of the bed of the 
creek in the lower portion is now lava. When the lava reached the 
smaller falls, near the brink of Kern River canyon, it poured over and 
cooled and built up the falls there more and more. 

Geological investigation shows that the entire stream-bed must have 
been filled by the lava, which necessarily resulted in the destruction of 
all the animal and plant life in that part of the stream below the volcanic 
craters. But such fish as were in the upper half of Volcano Creek 
escaped ; the lava flow did not kill or afifect them so long as they re- 
mained in their portion of the stream. 

Now, that is evidently exactly what took place. A number of fish, 
one hundred thousand or ten thousand, or whatever number there may 
have been in the upper eight or ten miles of Volcano Creek, were not 
fatally aff'ected by the lava flows. As time went on the lava flows 
became cooler and cooler, and as the stream flowed on, sooner or later 
the water was able to pursue a definite course on that lower portion 
and re-establish a little stream from its headquarters to Kern River 
canyon. The water would be more or less heated at first and would 



70 Pacific Fisheries Society 

not form a suitable home for trout ; but as time went on and the lava 
became cooled, then, and not until then, could the trout in the upper 
end descend to the lower portion. 

When they reached the lower portion they found an immense falls 
down which they could not, or would not, pass. Trout don't do that 
willingly, l)Ut those tliat do get wiped out among the the trout that 
may be down below. And, of course, no trout could get up from Kern 
River and none would intentionally go down over the falls ; so we have 
a colony of fish completely isolated and the isolation has been so long 
continued that the trout have changed in appearance from those in Kern 
River. And the trout in Kern River, I see no reason for not regarding 
it as a direct descendant of the original stock from which the Volcano 
Creek trout has descended less directly. 

In the course of time falls formed in the Little Kern River on the 
west and the South Kern on the south. The trout above those falls 
became different from those below the falls, just as the trout above 
the lava falls in Volcano Creek became different from those below. In 
fact, the trout below the falls nearest the mouths of the tributary 
streams are the Kern River trout; but above the falls in each of the 
streams is its own particular kind of trout. 

There are several streams on the west side of Kern River, all more 
or less alike, but no two absolutely alike. I think there are still addi- 
tional species in some of those streams that must be descrilied. 

Now, as to whether these different species of trout will hold their 
color after transportation and transplanting, it is difficult to say. It 
cannot be answered without extended investigation. Of course, there 
will be slight changes in color, as there are no two streams or lakes 
with precisely the same environment ; just as there are no two peas 
exactly alike. The causes operating on the trout in the two different 
streams are different — not necessarily very much different, but still 
they are different. 

I am very much pleased at the interest Mr. Ferguson is taking in 
the golden trout of the Kern River region. He has exceptional oppor- 
tunities for investigation and study of the habits of these beautiful fish 
and what effect transplantation will have on them. We are all very 
glad that Mr. Ferguson has taken up this important investigation. 



SOME FOOD AND GAME FISHES OF SOUTHERN CALI- 
FORNIA: THEIR HABITS, PRESENT CONDITION, 
NEED OF PROTECTION, ETC. 

By Dr. Charles Frkderick Holder 
Throop College of Technology, Pasadena, Cal. 

The marine fishes of Southern California, particularly those 
which appeal to the marketman and the sportsman and have a 
pronounced economic value, are of special interest, due to their 
pronounced individuality, and to the fact that many of them 
are more or less peculiar to the region, or at least are taken 
here in greater quantities than elsewhere. There are, briefly, 
as follows : 

Two swordfishes (Tetrapturus mitsukurh and Xiphias 
gladius). The former was not known to Southern California 
until reported to Dr. Jordan by the writer some ten years ago, 
though common in Japan. Xiphias is more or less rare. 

Yellowtail (Seriola dorsalis) and (Seriola ), a 

species I have seen but not caught ; its fin colors are a vivid 
lemon. I am not sure but there are two undcscribed species 
here. 

Barracuda {Sphyrcena argentea), black sea bass {Stcre- 
olepis gigas), white sea bass (Cynoscion nobilis), sea trout (C. 
parvipinnis) , skipjack {Sarda chilicnsis), oceanic bonito, the 
opah (Lampris luna), the jack (Luvarus), leaping tuna 
(Thunnus thynnus), albacore (Thunnus alalonga) , and yellow- 
finned tuna {Thunnus inaculatus). There is a species, I think, 
intermediate between the long-fin or albacore and the yellow- 
fin. I have, I am confident, had brief glimpses of two unde- 
scribed species. 

Sand bass, rock bass (Paralabrax clathratus) , "halibut," 
mackerel, medialuna, sheepshead, croaker, surf fish and many 
more. 

Add to these, many species of small fry, particularly rock 
fishes, grouper, rock cod, and we have the conspicuous forms 
which make up the summer catch in the Santa Catalina, Santa 
Barbara and San Clemente channels, and from Santa Barbara 
to Ensenada and beyond down the Mexican coast. 



72 Pacific Fisheries Society 

The chief points of interest are the islands of Santa Cata- 
lina and San Clemente ; the haunts, par excellence, of these 
forms which constitute the chief fisheries and fish supply of 
Los Angeles. Of this large and interesting series, to which I 
have but briefly referred, many are migrants. They move with 
regularity south, and down, and out. The yellowtail (Seriola) 
is theoretically a semi-migrant. It disappears with the first 
heavy storm of winter, but winters when the rainfall has been 
low, and storms few, I have taken them every month in the year 
in Avalon Bay, and a few remain here the year round under 
all conditions; the majority going by December or January. 
Later they are found in numbers down the Mexican coast, also 
in deep water in the San Clemente channel. Such fish are 
often filled with sardines, hence it is evident that they have 
followed this food to some off-shore plateau. Doubtless their 
movements are governed by the schools of sardines and ancho- 
vies, which constitute their food. 

The white sea bass appears at Santa Catalina in April and 
May, and is at its best in June, lying in the kelp beds in vast 
schools, passing from south to north and disappearing in 
August and September. 

The swordfish (Xiphias) is found in a general way from 
May until October; rarely, if ever, in winter. Tctrapturus, 
the so-called "Marhn fish," comes north, often in vast schools, 
in late August and September, and disappears in October. 
Schools of thousands have been seen, but in September "pairs" 
are generally seen, often close in-shore at Santa Catalina or 
San Clemente. 

The bonito ai)pcars in June, and is taken until October; is 
at its best in midsummer, none appearing in winter. The 
oceanic bonito is taken as early as April. The tunas are varia- 
ble, uncertain migrants. The blue or leaping tuna, before it 
was driven away by the insatiate netter, came in June or about 
July 15, with some regularity, and took bait until the middle 
of August, feeding on flying fishes, hunting them in vast 
schools. After August 15 they were often found filled with 
squid and rarely took bait. Of late years, very few over 100 
pounds in weight have been seen, the series of fence-like nets 
having driven them off. The albacore — the tuna of the can- 



Second Annual Meeting 73 

neries — is an off-shore fish, rarely coming in-shore, being taken 

in midchanneL I have taken it every month in the year off 

Avalon, yet in stormy winters it will disappear in the fall and 

not return in numbers until spring, earlier or later as the case 

may be. The spawning habits of this fish should be made a 

special study. I am convinced a school of fish, averaging 

about thirty pounds, will often spawn in these waters, as I 

have taken such fish in July and found them in ripe spawn. 

Then, when striking a school of fish averaging 15 pounds, or 

possibly 20, no spawn will be found. From this it might be 

inferred that mature fish came north to spawn, and did spawn, 

in and about the Islands. 

I think most of these fishes spawn on the surface. Dr. 

David Starr Jordan, the eminent authority on fishes, believes 

that practically all of these fishes spawn at Santa Catalina or 

in its immediate waters, at times, and that the region should 

be recognized as a spawning ground and protected as such. 

This is referred to in the following letter: 

Stanford University, December 5, 1912. 
Dr. Chas. F. Holder, 

Throop College of Technology, 
Pasadena, California. 

Dear Doctor Holder : I trust that you will be successful in having 
Santa Catalina and San Clemente Islands set aside as fish preserves. 
These two islands and the smooth waters off their shores are the spawn- 
ing grounds, above all others, for the greatest game fish of the country. 
The white sea bass, the great jewfish, the spearfish, swordfish, tuna, 
bonito, albacore, the Japanese tuna (yellow-fin tuna), all spawn on the 
rocky and other places about these islands, as well as a multitude of 
smaller fishes valuable to the angler or to the markets. 

Many of these fish spawn in the kelp which surrounds these islands. 
The netting carried on inshore disturbs these fishes at spawning time, 
and it is said that there has been a very marked falling off of these 
species. As Avalon, on Santa Catalina, is the great center of big game 
fishing, the disappearance of any of these species makes a great loss 
to the people who have investments there as well as to the visitors who 
come there for fishing purposes. 

It is desired to prohibit the use of seines and all nets for market 
purposes within three miles of the shores of these islands. This allows 
the professional fishermen the entire Santa Barl)ara channel, Santa 
Rosa, San Miguel, and the rest comprising the Santa Barbara group. 

I trust that you and our friends will be successful in getting the 
statute* passed which will protect these islands and set them apart as 
spawning grounds for the great game fishes of southern California. 
Yours very truly, 

(Signed) David Starr Jordan. 

*The writer procured the passage of such a bill twice. 



74 Pacific Fisheries Society 

There are few questions so puzzling as those referring to 
the breeding or spawning habits of fishes. Southern California 
is a new region and has received but little attention, hence little 
or nothing is known of the breeding habits of its common 
fishes. I have been more or less familiar with conditions at 
the Santa Catalina group for thirty years, but I have never 
seen the very young or newly hatched of the black sea bass, 
white sea bass, or any other fishes except sardines, mackerel, 
sheepshead, garabaldi, anchovies, etc. The very young disap- 
pear in a marvelous manner. I have seen the young of the 
flying fish, about the size of a grasshopper, "flying" or soaring 
a few inches in Avalon Bay. All this is not new to the dis- 
tinguished members of this Society, who will recall the mys- 
tery of the years, relating to the breeding habits of eels, 
Xiphias, the tarpon and many other fishes. 

One of the common summer sights of Avalon is a two or 
four hundred pound black sea bass (Stereolepis gigas) swollen 
with pounds of spawn, but I have never found a fisherman 
who has seen a young fish of this species ; by this I mean a fish 
an inch or two in length. 

In the little embryonic zoological station at Avalon, due to 
the courtesy of the Banning Company, I have made some inter- 
esting observations. I have watched the birth, alive, tail first, 
of the surf fish, first noticed on this coast by Agassiz. I have 
observed here the beautiful mimitic kelp fish build its nest by 
winding a long viscid cord about the weed, forming a ball four 
or five inches across, the cord containing the eggs. After the 
female worked a while at this, she sank to the bottom ex- 
hausted, while the smaller male, brilliant in nuptial garb, would 
hover over the nest, impregnate the eggs, and in turn give way 
to the female. At this time the splendidly garbed male was a 
jealous, indeed ferocious, caretaker, driving ofif all suspicious 
enemies. 

Here I have watched the living argonaut or paper nautilus, 
the rare living band fish (Regalccus), luvarus, opah, and many 
more, dreams and memories to the majority of zoologists, and 
suggestive of the need at this point of a well equipped zoolog- 
ical station. For many years it has been my habit to report 



Second Annual Meeting 75 

the new fishes here to Dr. Jordan and the notes have been pub- 
lished in the Proceedings of the National Museum. 

The big tuna (Tkunnus) makes mysterious visits inshore 
when not feeding. I have seen them swimming up and down 
the shores, suggestive of spawning, and containing ripe 
spawn. The black sea bass is a migrant, though not entirely 
so, as I have seen individuals in Avalon Bay about the dock 
in February, but in October the fishing ends and few are seen. 
They appear inshore, in the kelp, or near sandy places, in May, 
increase in numbers in June, when the females often bear 
enormous masses of eggs. Millions of black sea bass must 
be hatched about Santa Catalina, but, as previously stated, I 
have never seen the very young, the smallest specimen observed 
being about seven pounds. 

The barracuda appears in early spring — April, May, June — 
and disappears in the fall. Schools so vast have been seen, in 
June, that Santa Monica Bay appeared to be filled with them, 
while schools of thousands of swordfish (Tetrapturus) have 
been seen in August. By this it will be seen that the majority 
of fishes of this semi-tropic region are migratory, the constant 
ones being the sheepshead, rock fishes, rock bass, "halibut," 
white fish, rock cod and many others. 

The Southern California fisheries have just begun to attract 
attention, on account of their economic value, and, as with 
other sections, they will in time be exhausted, or seriously 
depleted, if the rules of conservation (a synonym for common 
sense) are not observed. In 1910 Santa Catalina Island was 
set apart as a Fish Reservation, on the ground that it was a 
spawning ground. This lasted a year or two, with marked 
results, the law being thrown out on the ground that it was 
"class legislation." I have been watching this region — the 
waters of the islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente — for 
28 or 30 years, and the indiscriminate netting to which the 
former has been subjected has resulted in a falling off of from 
50 to 75 per cent. In 1914-15, I took up the matter of Santa 
Catalina under the regular conservation propaganda of the 
Wild Life Protective League, of which I had the honor to be 
President, and urged the re-passage of the bill prohibiting all 
netting at Santa Catalina, said by Jordan and others to be a 



7(i Pacific Fisheries Society 

spawning ground, in the letter previously referred to. This 
proposition was systematically, if not violently, opposed by the 
San Pedro marketmen, the Avalon boatmen, the 13 or 14 com- 
panies of tuna or albacore canners, and the San Francisco 
seiners. 

The Legislature of 1915 passed a law stopping all netting 
at Santa Catalina Island and the waters three miles off its 
shores, practically repassing the old bill, which would now 
hold, as the Island had been constituted a fish district by itself 
by the Commission. This Island, which represents an invest- 
ment of several millions of dollars, has a permanent town with a 
population of from four to seven thousand persons in summer, 
shops, hotels, homes of all kinds, all more or less dependent 
upon the angling conducted in its waters, and its varients ; in 
a word, the Island is in a class by itself, and one of the best 
reasons why it should be protected is given in the following 
decision of the United States Fish Commission : 

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR, 

Bureau of Fisheries. 

Washington, D. C, December 26, 1912. 
Professor Chas. F. Holder, 

Throop College of Technology, 

Pasadena, California. 
Sir: In reply to your letter of December 11th, you are informed 
that in the opinion of the bureau it is a proper policy to preserve for 
angling any waters in which fish for sport greatly predominates over 
the commercial fisheries, as the prosperity of the adjacent communities 
is more affected by the expenditures of sportsmen than by the rev- 
enue derived from the capture of a comparatively small quantity of 
fishes for food purposes only. It is also highly important to both the 
anglin"' and commercial fishery interests that the fishes should not be 
disturbed on their spawning grounds. 

Although the bureau has no recent knowledge of the conditions 
obtaining on Santa Catalina and San Clemente islands, it appears from 
the statements of Dr. Jordan that these two considerations would be 
subserved by the proposed measure to establish a fish refuge within 
territorial waters adjacent to the two islands, and with that under- 
standine the bureau gives the proposition its endorsement. 

Respectfully, 

(Signed) H. M. Smith, 

Commissioner. 
If netting of any kind had been permitted at Santa Cata- 
lina, a new and valuable industry would have been aided by 
the practical destruction of one of the great assets of the State 
of California, the building up of which during 25 years having 
only been accomplished by the expenditure of vast sums run- 
ning into the millions. 



Second Annual Meeting 77 

It is the custom among the thoughtless, and generally made 
a war cry by labor agitators, that mere "angling" is a "million- 
aire's sport" that should be brushed aside and eliminated when 
confronted by a "legitimate industry," say, like the canning of 
albacore, or tuna. The truth is, that while the product of the 
fish canneries is of value to State and Nation, and every patri- 
otic citizen rejoices in its successful estabHshment, the business 
is no more legitimate than that of the citizens of California 
who subsist upon the proceeds of legitimate sport, as sea 
angling, glass bottom boats and the scores of variants of this 
sport found at the town of Avalon, Santa Catalina, and other 
coast towns of California. The income from sea angling is 
large and important, is the support of hundreds, and in impor- 
tance and dignity ranks with any other economic proposition 
in the State of California; and it would seem to those knowing 
the circumstances, that no new industry should be allowed to 
climb to success over its ruins, which would have been the 
result had not the legislature intervened, and for the second 
time saved this great fishery of California from absolute 
destruction. 

The financial importance and dignity of "sport" and its 
true economic value is not appreciated, or even suspected, in 
America by the people at large. The working man discrimi- 
nates between $100,000 made in a brickyard and $100,000 ex- 
pended in a year, or in the same time, in the city of Los An- 
geles for fishing tackle. Thousands of men and women in 
every state in the Union are supported directly by the so-called 
"sports" and pastimes, and it should not be forgotten that the 
despised so-called "milHonaire sportsman" brings into the 
State of California every year, directly or indirectly, five or six 
millions of dollars and that the economic value of sports ranks 
side by side with the greatest and most dignified of California 
assets. 

The State of Maine is a shining example of a community 
where sport is honored, valued, appreciated, conserved and 
looked after with jealous care. Why? Because it means mill- 
ions to its people, its railroads, its hotels, its thousands of 
guides, its fly-makers, its rod-makers, and manufacturers of 
sporting goods, taxidermists, etc., etc. There are in Southern 



78 Pacific Fisheries Society 

California, south of Santa Barbara, thirteen or fourteen tuna 
canning companies, represented by 250 or 300 large launches, 
all of which require large quantities of sardines daily to enable 
them to catch the albacore which is canned under the name of 
tuna, a new and most commendable business, promising to 
rank with that of the salmon in the north in the not distant 
future. If, as proposed by the canners, these boats had been 
allowed to haul their bait seines at Santa Catalina Island, or 
along its shores, they would, in a very short time, have looted 
it of the sardines and anchovies which constitute the food of 
the fishes of this region, a systematic cleaning out which has 
been in operation during the summer of 1915 by netters of all 
kinds anticipating the closing of the operations by the law on 
August 8. The result of this netting is that the spawning or 
resting fish are continually disturbed, but worse ! It would 
have been impossible for even a small army of deputies to have 
guarded this Island Fish Reserve and prevented the attacks or 
inroads of the San Pedro and San Francisco market fishermen, 
whose big purse nets would have been hauled under the guise 
of "taking bait," and the looting of the Island waters kept up 
to the bitter end. No better illustration of an indiscriminate 
looting of a fishery could be seen than at Santa Catalina during 
the present year up to August 8. Large fishing boats came down 
from San Francisco with purse nets said to be two miles or 
more in length. They absolutely devastated the region day 
and night, while the two hundred or more boatmen, many per- 
manent residents of the town of Avalon, each owning boats 
representing an investment of from $1,500 to $5,000, faced the 
depletion and practical ruin of their lifework, unable to raise a 
hand or to protest. Every foot of water along shore was 
hauled and re-hauled by nets of various kinds, and tons of 
spawning and other fish taken, constituting a menace to the 
entire fishery of the region. 

A few years ago, one could sit upon the piazza of the Tuna 
Club or the Hotel Metropole on the water front of Avalon Bay 
and watch vast schools of tuna, white sea bass and yellowtails 
rippling the waters in every direction. The tuna in particular, 
and I refer to the great tuna, the "tunny" of Italy, has been 
almost entirely driven away. In Italy this fish constitutes a 



Second Annual Meeting 79 

national asset, in reality a gold mine, and its approach is 
watched with the greatest interest by the people at large. I 
have seen hundreds of acres within the three mile limit of 
Santa Catalina lashed into foam by thousands of these fishes, 
during the past decades, and among the crimes of the century, 
their disappearance should be included, a crime due wholly to 
ignorance, mendacity and stupidity. They were driven away 
from these waters so completely that not half a dozen fish of 
over 100 pounds in weight have been taken in ten years, and 
but one or two so far in 1914-15. They have been driven away 
by the hurdle-like nets arranged along the shores of San Clem- 
ente and Santa CataHna Islands, 150 of which have been 
counted in less than a mile and a half, a system of obstructions 
so deadly that it might well seem that it had been devised by 
some clever mind who desired not only to ruin the fisheries in 
Southern California but to exterminate the fishermen. I ven- 
ture to say that if I should go before any labor organization 
today and claim that the great leaping tuna was a valuable 
asset to the State of California, I should be laughed at or 
hissed ; yet there is not a conservationist within the sound of 
my voice who does not know that this is an actual fact, and 
that this one fish fifteen years ago brought thousands of dollars 
to this State annually and people from all over the world, who 
distributed their money not alone in Southern California but 
from San Diego to the Canadian border, all classes being bene- 
fited alike, railroads, hotels, fishing tackle manufacturers, 
guides, boatmen, in fact, business of all kinds was aided by the 
men who came from all over the world to angle for the great 
leaping tuna at Santa Catalina, which we have permitted to be 
driven away by ignorant and mendacious net haulers, without 
conscience or the slightest idea what the word conservation 
means. If the laws are not rigorously observed and enforced, 
the yellowtail, white sea bass and other valuable food and game 
fishes of Los Angeles and San Diego Counties will also disap- 
pear and it behooves the friends of conservation to stand for 
reason, scientific discrimination and common sense. It is you, 
gentlemen of the Fisheries Society, who must do these things 
and set an example to our own ignorant countrymen, not to 
speak of the hords of aliens, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, 



80 Pacific Fisheries Society 

Italians and others, who seem to control the fisheries of the 
Pacific Coast. If we leave it to the ignorant and uneducated, 
without protest, our game, our market fisheries, our forests, 
will be wiped from the face of the earth ! It is a lamentable 
fact and a truism that our fisheries are mainly in the hands of 
the aliens referred to, men who are convinced that every con- 
servationist is an enemy, and that the protective theories so 
carefully worked out by men of intelHgence in every state in 
the Union are the vagaries of irresponsible cranks. I need 
but call your attention to the struggles of conservationists, men 
and women, in the various conservation societies in every state 
in the Union, from the Audubon Society, The National Con- 
servation Society, organized under Mr. Giflford Pinchot, the 
Permanent Wild Life Fund of Dr. Hornaday, to the numerous 
societies in our own State, to show that if it were not for the 
incessant labors of the members of these associations, and the 
State Fish and Game Commissions, animal life would cease to 
exist. Extinction seems to be the battle cry of ignorance and 
assininity. We of California may rejoice in this Year of Our 
Lord 1915 in a Legislature that stands for the best in sane con- 
servation, and that we have in Governor Johnson an official 
who has stood loyally behind the sane work of our conserva- 
tionists, and who has made California largely what it is, and 
what it stands for in the protection of animal life and game. 
I need not refer to our distinguished President, Mr. Carl Wes- 
terfeld, an honored member of the State Fish and Game Com- 
mission, who has done yeoman's service, with his confreres, 
along the lines of conservation, often a most thankless task in 
California, where the defender of wild life seems unfortu- 
nately to be selected for the abuse which emanates from the 
ignorant and mendacious, and it gives me pleasure to extend 
to the Fish and Game Commission of California the hearty 
thanks of the conservationists for the good work which they 
have done. We are all in a fight, a veritable battle royal, 
where the foes are mendacity and ignorance ; we are often 
almost beaten and more than embarrassed by our insidious 
foes, but I believe, Mr. President, that it is our duty and that 
of every citizen to aid in the dissemination of knowledge 
relating to the requirements for the protection of animal Ufe. 



Second Annual Meeting 81 

Every citizen, man or woman, should take a personal interest 
in the selection of the men in state and nation who constitute 
our Fish and Game Commissioners and, once selected, we 
should give them our hearty support and aid. As citizens, we 
should never forget our duties as conservationists. We should 
see that the business man, the canner or packer, whether of 
salmon or tuna or sardine, has fair play and we should demand 
fair play from them in return. Personally, I am proud of the 
economic successes of the business men engaged in the fish- 
eries of the Pacific Coast, but I beUeve that all classes and all 
interests should stand together and work for the greatest good 
of the Wild Life of state and nation and aid in the sane utiHza- 
tion of our national products. The laws of conservation are 
the laws of common sense of the man of intelligence. If you 
cut down a tree and never encourage another tree to grow, 
your grandchildren are going to sufifer. Posterity has its 
rights, despite the old ward politician — said to be a Califor- 
nian — who retorted to the plea of an Audubon Society mem- 
ber the following philosophical truism, "What has posterity 
done for Casey?" 

The Hon. Mr. Linthicum of Maryland, who has done such 
important work for the fisheries of the Atlantic Coast, told me 
that the season's catch of shad in the Chesapeake Bay in 1914 
did not equal the catch of one day in 1900. In a word, gen- 
tlemen, the valuable shad industry of the Atlantic Coast 
appears to have been almost wiped out in a single decade, a 
luminous answer to those who protest that the fishes of the sea 
exist in such vast numbers that they cannot be exhausted. The 
futility of argument, and the necessity of fighting, was never 
better shown than in Mr. Linthicum's report to the govern- 
ment. He begged the netters at the mouth of the Potomac, 
which was almost shut in by nets, to allow but 10 per cent, of 
the spawning shad to ascend the river, assuring the netters that 
this would save the day and insure them work for the follow- 
ing year. Would they agree to it ? Not for a moment ! And 
the shame of it was that they were not aUens, representing the 
ignorance of oriental nations, but Americans, whose ancestors 
were among those who aided in the evolution of the great 
states of Maryland and Virginia. 



82 Pacific Fisheries Society 

The moral of all this, Mr. President, is, that the time has 
gone by for pleading, discussing and debating these questions. 
The intelligent men and women of California know the menace 
with which they are confronted, and they propose to fight, 
knowing that they are saving these ruthless and ignorant de- 
stroyers of fish and game from themselves. 

The utilization of fish products has just begun on the 
Pacific Coast. The Mexican government has given a conces- 
sion to parties to utilize the products of the west coast of 
Mexico. Another concession from the Villistas concedes the 
entire rights to fish the Gulf of California region, and a few 
years from now this virgin field will be drawn upon by Cali- 
fornia; in fact, to-day, Mexico is supplying certain products 
of the sea which ten years ago were common and unprotected. 



THE CLOSE RELATION OF THE UNITED STATES COAST 

AND GEODETIC SURVEY TO THE GREAT FISHING 

INTERESTS OF THE PACIFIC COAST 

AND ALASKA 

By E. Lester Jones 

Superintendent of the United States Coast and 

Geodetic Survey 

I dare say there is no more fitting time and place than at 
this second annual meeting of the Pacific Fisheries Society to 
speak briefly of the close relations of the United States Coast 
and Geodetic Survey to the great fishing interests of the Pacific 
Coast and Alaska. As one who has in a modest way studied 
this enormous industry of the west coast, the urgent necessity 
for guarding the past neglected waters — more especially in 
Alaska — looms up to me in the strongest and most urgent man- 
ner possible. 

When I made my trip of investigation to Alaska last year, 
I did so as United States Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries, 
and naturally my efforts were directed largely along the lines 
connected with the functions of my office. But before I had 
fairly started on my trip there was a serious question, yes, an 
obligation, of the Federal Government, which loomed up to me 
as a most important factor in the future development of 
Alaska's great industry, namely, its unsafe and unprotected 
waters, and the very little work which was being done to 
remedy this discrepancy in the territory's present condition and 
development ; also the fact that so many had failed to recog- 
nize its significance, and that on the whole little preparation 
was being made to correct this evil by the provision of proper 
funds for safe vessels in which to conduct the surveys of 
waters, and with the vessels more men to carry on the work 
whenever it is possible to do so. 

In 1914 the various fishing fleets operating in Alaska waters 
approximated 2,300 vessels, with a total net tonnage of almost 
147,000, and valued at nearly eight and one-quarter millions of 
dollars. The home ports of these vessels are in Alaska, or the 
seaports of Washington, Oregon and Cahfornia. 



84 Pacific Fisheries Society 

Alaska has been owned by this country for 48 years, and 
today all vessels, both fishing and commercial (as well as gov- 
ernment vessels), still ply through largely unprotected waters, 
endangering both life and property. It is interesting to note 
that the failure to safeguard the seas, the bays, etc., has 
exacted a heavy annual toll from the fishing interests of the 
Pacific Coast and Alaska. During the last 15 years there have 
been over 70 sizable vessels, valued at over two and one-half 
millions of dollars, lost in the waters of Alaska. In addition 
to this, and of more serious importance by far, has been the 
loss of life. It is no wonder that the people who have invested 
their money in vessels to carry on a large and legitimate busi- 
ness should hesitate to enter these waters, of which there are 
not only no correct surveys, or no survey at all, but which 
are generally without lighthouses, buoys and other aids to 
navigation. 

I am fully aware that in many instances these fishing com- 
panies have found it necessary to make their own surveys of 
the channels, which has been done at considerable expense and 
loss of valuable time. 

This may seem to reflect on the U. S. Coast and Geodetic 
Survey. But the blame does not lie there. The survey is 
doing and has been doing everything possible with the means 
at hand — indeed it has almost accomplished more than possible, 
for it goes without saying that boats like the Gedney and 
Mc Arthur, 41 and 40 years old respectively (ready to sink at 
almost any time), are not only unfit to accomplish efficient 
worl? for a government like ours, hut endanger the lives of the 
men in our service. In addition to these vessels, the steamship 
Patterson, used in more unprotected places, and the Taku, 
used in carrying on inshore soundings, are not the kind of ves- 
sels which should now be used or be kept in commission for 
doing the most efficient work of this sort. I am glad to say 
that Congress, last year, appropriated money, a part of which 
was for a new vessel to be known as the Surveyor, which will 
be used excliisively in carrying on surveys in Alaskan waters. 

This, I hope, marks a new era, not only in furnishing a 
high type of vessel, peculiarly and properly adapted for this 
work, but which will mean the beginning of an expansion 



Second Annual Meeting 85 

whereby we will have given us, regularly, necessary funds for 
carrying on such operations. 

It is beyond my comprehension that a Federal Government 
which has laws that make it a criminal offense to provide un- 
safe and improperly equipped privately owned vessels, would 
permit Federal officials to man and operate these unsafe and 
otherwise inefficient crafts that should be, in some instances, 
consigned to the scrap heap. It is asking too much of our offi- 
cers and men, who have already established a high standard 
of loyalty and efficiency, to jeopardize their lives on these ves- 
sels. They are a brave set of men, having no superiors in 
the world. They act as navigators, engineers, paymasters and 
surveyors, and I protest against the injustice of asking these 
men, who are themselves looking for dangers with the idea of 
protecting the lives of thousands of people and millions of 
dollars in property, to live on vessels that are unfit for any 
service, and which endanger their own lives. 

I can assure you that one of my biggest efforts will be not 
only the literal carrying out, as far as our own vessels are con- 
cerned, of all the provisions of the Federal laws ; but I want 
the standard so high that we will be fully complying with all 
the provisions of the Steamboat Inspection regulations, so that 
our boats will be a little safer and more efficient than those 
belonging to the merchant marine. 

When I was in Alaska in 1914, and noted the excitement in 
reference to the plans for the new Federal railroad for which 
Congress appropriated thirty-five million dollars (and which no 
doubt is a great step toward bringing stability and permanency 
of commerce, and a class of people that are desirable as citi- 
zens of that great territory), I could not help seeing equally, 
if not with greater force, that the real success of the territory 
was dependent upon the safety of her waters. Alaska can 
never fully develop until her waterways, which are her real 
gateways to commerce, are safe to human life and property. 

I hope that a large majority are awakening to this fact and 
I am constrained to believe that Congress, with the facts more 
clearly placed before it, is going to provide a sufficient sum to 
give the Coast and Geodetic Survey the necessary funds to put 
this work on the broad basis it deserves. 



86 Pacific Fisheries Society 

So much importance did the President attach to this ques- 
tion, and to the past neglect of such an important obHgation of 
the government, that he referred to it in no uncertain terms in 
his annual message at the last session of Congress ; the Secre- 
tary of Commerce has fought for more than two years to have 
a proper recognition given this need of his Department, and I 
am glad to say that his untiring efforts are beginning to bear 
fruit. 

I know from experience that your Senators and Congress- 
men on the Pacific Coast are with you heart and soul in fur- 
thering this great work for Alaska ; and I feel it incumbent 
upon me to use my every effort toward furnishing not only 
these members of Congress, who are so naturally and vitally 
interested in helping to solve this problem, with all necessary 
information ; but I hope that a proper, quiet, thoughtful, and 
sane appeal to other members of Congress will make them 
ready and willing to lend their support. 

And, in addition, this Society can lend a helping hand, and 
its efforts are bound to meet with satisfactory results in help- 
ing to bring about better conditions. 

It is pertinently asked what our needs for carrying on the 
work are. This is easily answered. First, more vessels spe- 
cially constructed for the work; and more men, not only to 
man the new vessels, but enough of them to carry on the work 
every day of the year, weather permitting. In addition to 
this, to insure absolute thoroughness and safety in the waters 
of Alaska, and in the harbors and bays of the Pacific Coast, 
the wire drag is the only adequate method to employ. This 
requires many men and small boats of the type necessary to 
make the carrying on of the work feasible and practicable. 
This is not a cheap method of getting exact results ; but, may 
I ask, isn't it necessary from the human as well as the com- 
mercial standpoint? And is it economy for the government 
to save a small first cost and in a few years to lose nearly 
a million dollars in vessels thereby, not to mention a much 
greater amount lost to the fishing interests ? 

I hope the day is at hand when we can see these things in a 
broader light, and in no light of false economy. 



Second Annual Meeting 87 

Finally let me say that I am glad to have had these few 
minutes in which to address this Society on the relations of 
the work of the Bureau which I have the honor of heading to 
the future safety of the large fishing interests of the west 
coast. It gratifies me more than I can tell you to be affiliated 
so closely with two Federal bureaus whose work is so closely 
interlocked, and I assure you that my untiring efforts will be 
used in doing all I can towards furthering the work of protec- 
tion for human life and property on the waters of the Pacific 
Coast and Alaska. 



OYSTER CULTURE IN WASHINGTON 

By Trevor Kincaid 

University of Washington 

The history of oyster culture in the northwest section of 
the United States has followed the same general lines as in 
other parts of the world where the molluscs exist in sufificient 
quantities to establish a fishery. A period of discovery and 
local use of natural beds was followed by active exploita- 
tion and extensive shipment of the product into more and 
more distant regions, as centers of population developed and 
means of transportation multiplied. No thought was given to 
the possible exhaustion of the beds till the end of the supply 
was in sight. The first district in which exhaustion of the 
fishery became apparent was in Willapa Harbor in the south- 
western portion of the state. Here the extensive natural beds 
were easily reached, several considerable centers of population 
furnished a heavy demand and the other conditions favoring 
rapid exploitation were at hand. The depletion of the beds 
were rapid, and was pushed to an extreme, so that the native 
oyster has ceased to be an important item in the oyster pro- 
duction of the Willapa district. The growth of the industry 
based upon the transplantation of eastern oysters to this body 
of water, which is admirably adapted for this purpose, has 
tended to nullify the efforts that might otherwise have been 
made to re-establish the native oysters upon the basis of arti- 
ficial tillage. 

In the Puget Sound district a similar sequence of phe- 
nomena occurred, but here the conditions were more favorable 
for a recovery. The natural beds were more extensive and 
more scattered, the demand was not so exhausting, and the 
danger of depletion was observed before it had reached the 
acute stage. The transplanting of eastern oysters did not at 
first prove entirely successful, which tended to make the hold- 
ers of oyster land view with great concern the possible ex- 
tinction of a valuable source of production. The more intel- 
ligent and progressive of the oystermen cast about for methods 
of artificial control of oyster propagation, but they were at a 



90 Pacific Fisheries Society 

loss for a model, as the system of culture followed on the 
Atlantic coast was obviously ill-adapted to the native oyster, 
which occupies a different tidal zone from its relative of the 
eastern coast and which is otherwise different in its habits and 
method of reproduction. The methods employed on the coast 
of France seemed more likely to be satisfactory, so an effort 
was made, in the district adjacent to Shelton, to construct 
systems of artificial tide pools where the animals could be 
handled in an intensive manner. This plan proving reasonably 
successful the idea was followed up on a larger scale, and ex- 
tensive areas were gradually developed through a process of 
leveling and diking. 

The theory of diking was based upon the view that oysters 
protected in a diked area were at a great advantage over their 
relatives on the uneven and exposed areas outside. It was be- 
lieved that the oysters were more readily protected from 
enemies, their supply of food was more abundant and more 
constant, the danger of freezing was lessened by a sheet of 
protecting water, while a corresponding protection was vouch- 
safed the young oyster during the heat of summer, when the 
delicate spat were subjected to baking upon areas exposed to 
the direct rays of the sun during the long runs of the tide. 
The earlier dikes were walled in with ridges of earth and 
gravel, but this method, which was wasteful of ground, was 
superseded by dikes built of a double wall of planks between 
which sand and gravel were deposited. A further advance 
came when concrete was substituted for the temporary wooden 
structures which had come into use. 

At the present time reinforced concrete walls are in almost 
universal use in the oystering district at the southern section of 
Puget Sound, and many miles of such cement walls have been 
constructed. A tendency has been apparent in the case of the 
larger holdings to increase the size of the diked areas, thus 
lessening the cost of construction and minimizing the waste 
ground, as well as providing a more uniform distribution of 
water currents. The largest area now enclosed by a single 
dike is on the property of the Olympia Oyster Company at 
Oyster Bay and has a superficies of about thirteen acres. 



Second Annual Meeting 91 

The task of preparing such areas for intensive oyster farm- 
ing involves considerable engineering skill, since careful 
studies must be made of levels, tidal movements, sedimenta- 
tion and the relation of the piece of ground in hand to 
other areas already under tillage. Leveling is accomplished 
by means of floats made of cedar logs and decked over. At 
low^ tide the float grounds and the material to be shifted is 
loaded upon the deck, while at high tide it is poled to the prop- 
er place and dumped. For extensive w^ork large dredging ma- 
chines are being brought into use and seem likely to supersede 
the more primitive methods. 

After a level has been established the wooden forms are 
constructed and the concrete is run in from mixers handled 
on floats. The diked area is next covered with cultch to form 
a nidus for the attachment of the larval oysters, the usual 
material being shells of oysters and clams, although various 
substances are utilized at times on account of a shortage of 
shells for this purpose. In case beds are located where they 
are subject to wave action, protection is afforded by driving a 
line of piles off shore and running a double string of booms 
calculated to break the crests of the waves. 

Diking has been developed on a large scale in the southern 
section of Puget Sound, but in the northern district, about 
Bellingham and in Hoods Canal, very little has been done to 
improve the oyster ground, and considerable effort will be 
required to restore these beds to their full productive capa- 
city. There is, however, some question whether certain of the 
oyster bearing areas can be handled by the diking method. 
This is notably the case in Willapa Harbor, where the bottom 
is largely sand, which tends to riffle and drift when the flow 
of the currents is interrupted. 

It is estimated that a bed of native oysters will carry a 
maximum oyster population of three thousand sacks per acre, 
but it is obvious that this condition is reached but seldom 
under existing circumstances. 

The spawning of the native oyster begins in April or May, 
depending upon the establishment of certain optimum condi- 
tions of temperature, the third week in May being the average 
time. After attaining a maximum, spawning gradually dimin- 



02 Pacific Fisheries Society 

ishes in volume, and finally tapers off to negligible quantities 
in August The native oyster is hermaphrodite, and the eggs 
are fertilized while still within the mantle chamber o the 
mother animal. After fertilization the development of the 
larv^ from the embryonic phases requires approximately a 
week after which the motile larvae escape from the maternal 
shell 'and take their place in the midst of the swarmmg micro- 
scopic hfe of the surface waters. The duration of the 
swarming stage is apparently about a month, and during this 
time the larv^ pursues a very active and adventurous career, 
the most notable fact being a migratory movement m response 
to light, which brings them to the surface at night and causes 
them to seek lower levels during the daytime. Finally, the 
larval shell increases in size and weight and the ammals be- 
come more sluggish, and where a suitable substratum is at hand 
the larva attaches itself and forms a minute oyster or spat. 

Experiments designed to determine the length of the larval 
stage of the native oyster were conducted by the writer, and 
as a result of these, larvae confined in receptacles m the labor- 
^to^ ^ere kept aUve for a period of twenty days, during all 
of which time they continued to be exceedingly active. It is 
quite probable that the free stages of the animal are much 
lon-er than has been supposed, as it is rather surprising to 
find the animals enduring under these circumstances condi- 
tions which would tend to shorten, rather than prolong, their 
tenure of existence. 

The oyster is relatively free from enemies in the waters of 
Puget Sound. In some localities starfishes appear but rarely, 
and when they do become numerous in the diked areas they 
are readily seen and easily controlled. No boring gastropods 
are present, the only injurious member of this group being the 
sea-snail, Polynices lewisH, which ploughs its way through 
the beds' in search of clams on which they feed. Burrowing 
crustaceans, Upogebia and Callianassa cause troube by bring- 
ing up the debris from lower strata and thus burying the 
oy^sters. Ducks of several species also destroy the young 
oysters and a special permit has been given the oystermen to 
destroy these birds upon the beds. The writer has also ob- 
served that one of the common jellyfishes, Plciirohrachia, de- 



Second Annual Meeting 93 

vours the larval oysters during their period of swarming in 
the plankton. 

In addition to the native oyster, the eastern species has been 
the object of careful tillage through the development of an in- 
dustry based upon the transplantation of the young oysters 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Large areas are now utilized 
for this purpose in Puget Sound, Grays Harbor, and Willapa 
Harbor. Young oysters from one to two years old are brought 
out from the eastern coast and planted out in areas where they 
will grow to a marketable size. As a rule the beds prepared for 
this purpose are between tides, as the difficulty of recover- 
ing the animals in deeper water is too great. In the Olympia 
district the eastern oyster is usually planted out on compara- 
tively narrow beaches, somewhat removed from the great 
flats at the heads of bays where the native oyster is tilled. 
This industry has been carried on for a considerable time, 
and has proven profitable, notwithstanding great losses through 
the death of considerable numbers of the young oysters, and 
of mature ones as well, through causes that are not clearly 
understood. 

All efforts to establish the eastern oyster locally through 
the process of reproduction failed of effect through causes 
which are not clear, although the lower temperature of our 
waters has been the usual explanation offered. Nature, how- 
ever, has provided a solution for the difficulty through a com- 
bination of circumstances which could hardly have been fore- 
told. In the southern section of Willapa Harbor, at the 
mouth of the Nasel river, a most fortunate set of conditions 
prevail, particularly as to the conditions of temperature and 
salinity of the water, and in this favored district the eastern 
species carried out its spawning operations unheralded, and 
the result has been a strong set of native born Oystrca vir- 
ginica, which bids fair to establish this species on a commer- 
cial scale in the near future. This western spawned species 
will presumably possess hardy qualities which will enable it 
to survive in other sections of the Northwest, and efforts 
are already under way to introduce it into Puget Sound, a 
small plantation having been established in Oyster Bay, near 
Olympia, in the summer of 1914. 



94 Pacific Fisheries Society 

The possibilities involved in the culture of these two 
species of oyster side by side has given rise to speculations 
as to the likelihood of the animals interbreding, and thus 
forming hybrids, which might give rise to new varieties of 
oyster, having some of the qualities of each. This is highly 
improbable, as it has been found by experiment that the two 
forms will not cross, since the eggs of the native oyster, 
when fertilized by the sperm of the eastern species, fail to 
initiate those changes that lead to the formation of an embryo. 
This fact is also true of the reciprocal cross, using the eggs 
of the eastern oyster. 

A third species of oyster has recently been brought into 
prominence through the attempt of oystermen to introduce 
the Japanese oyster into our waters. This species seems to 
be much hardier than the transplanted eastern oyster and 
makes a very rapid growth in local waters. Since it is almost 
as large as the eastern oyster and is of an excellent flavor, 
the preliminary experiments proving successful, plantations 
are now being established at several points on an extensive 
scale. Since seed oysters can be secured from Japan more 
Aeaply than from the Atlantic coast, and as the death rate 
appears to be less, this new industry may assume considerable 
dimensions. It has not been determined whether the Japanese 
species will propagate in our waters, but they will certainly 
mature their sexual products, since experiments in artificial 
fertilization proved successful when performed at Oyster Bay 
in the summer of 1915. Embryos were kept alive for several 
days and seemed hardier than those of the eastern oyster ob- 
served under like conditions. 

The Japanese oyster crosses freely with the eastern species 
and gives rise to very vigorous larvae. A large number of 
these hybrid larvae were liberated in Oyster Bay in 1915, 
but whether any of them formed spat remains to be seen. 
The Japanese species will not cross with the native oyster if 
our experiments have been correctly interpreted. 

With excellent laws to safeguard the industry, with a great 
area of undeveloped tidelands awaiting exploitation, it would 
seem as if the oyster industry of the State of Washington bids 
fair to undergo a great expansion in the years to come and thus 



Second Annual Meeting 95 

keep pace with the increase in population, which will inevitably 
multiply the present demand for the products of the oyster 
fishery. 

DISCUSSION. 

Dr. Edwards : May I ask how many acres or square miles there 
are of oyster beds? 

Prof. Kincaid : Exact data are not available owing to the rather 
confusing method of classifying the tidelands of the state. Of the land 
originally classified by the state as natural oyster ground, about 14,000 
acres are now reserved to serve as a base for the supply of seed oysters 
to those engaged in oyster farming. Much of this land has also passed 
into the hands of private individuals or is held on leases from the state. 
In addition to this, much ground classified as second class tideland has 
been utilized for the purpose of rearing oysters. When all of the tide- 
lands available for oyster culture has been brought into actual use, 
the acreage involved will be very large. 

The present production of oysters is about half a million dollars 
per annum. Under intensive tillage, an acre of first class oyster land 
will carry about three thousand sacks of the molluscs, but under ex- 
isting conditions this maximum is seldom reached. Since oysters have 
been sold at times at prices exceeding ten dollars per sack, the profits 
in the business are considerable, notwithstanding the great cost of im- 
proving the ground and the initial cost of the land, wtiich has sold for 
as much as $4,000 per acre. With the progressive development of the 
beds many thousands of acres now unproductive will be brought under 
tillage. 

Dr. Eraser : I should like to ask Professor Kincaid if the condi- 
tions in which the swimming larvae were kept for 20 days were similar 
to the conditions out in the open. I ask this on account of something 
that occurred while rearing some jelly-fish last winter. After the eggs 
were hatched out to form free swimming planulse, if there was seaweed 
in the dishes, the planulae became attached to this in about two days, 
but when they were put in a watch glass without any seaweed or other 
basis for attachment, they remained suspended for many days, finally 
disintegrating, since they could not become permanently attached to the 
smooth glass surface. 

Prof. Kincaid : The conditions under which the larvas were main- 
tained in the laboratory were totally different from those that existed 
in the open bay. The rearing was conducted in plain rectangular jars 
filled with water which was not changed during the entire period. 

Attempts to establish conditions corresponding approximately to 
those of the natural environment of the oyster embryos have never been 
entirely successful. Small cages made of bolting cloth and suspended 
in the oyster dikes seemed at first sight the natural procedure, but the 
larvfe lived for a relatively short time. The conclusion reached was 
that one of the vital factors in rearing the larvae was to so place them 
as to make it possible for them to reach the surface of the water at 
times. The fact that the larvae of the native oyster require approxi- 
mately a month to complete their transition to the attached state is 
shown quite clearly by a study of the seasonal phenomena. The great 
flood of larvae cast into the water by the mother animals at the first 
heavy spawning in the early summer does not result in the appearance 
of attached oysters till about a month later. The time interval varies 
according to the season, so that spells of cold weather cause a lengthen- 
ing of the interval between spawning and setting. Evidence derived 



96 Pacific Fisheries Society 

from other lines of observation tends to confirm this conclusion so 
there seems to be little doubt of the correctness of this view. 

Mr. Westerfeld: In San Francisco Bay we have had considerable 
trouble with the oyster beds on account of the pollution of oil and 
sewage. Have the same conditions prevailed in Puget Sound? 

Prof. Kincaid : We have had no trouble from the causes mentioned, 
except in a few bays upon the shores of which towns of considerable 
size have been established. For instance, the oyster beds that formerly 
existed near Olympia were destroyed through the expansion of com- 
merce and industry over the ground which they occupied. The em- 
bryos of the oyster require extremely pure water for their development 
and are very sensitive to floating impurities, since they come to the 
surface at night, and any contamination of the surface water is im- 
mediately fatal. Possibly this may explain the failure of the oyster to 
spawn properly in San Francisco bay, where the development of com- 
merce in recent years has been very marked, more especially an immense 
increase in the number of vessels using petroleum products for the 
generation of power. 

Dr. Edwards: May I ask at what age oysters are marketed? 

Prof. Kincaid : Oysters are ordinarily marketed at three years of 
age, but many do not mature sufficiently by that time and are left on 
the beds till the following season. 

Dr. Edwards : At what tidal stratum is the culture of the native 
oyster conducted? 

Prof. Kincaid : The native oyster can maintain itself on bottom 
that is covered by thirty or forty feet of water at low tide, but as a 
matter of practice all of the activities of the oystermen are conducted 
on areas uncovered by the tide, the optimum level being at about mid- 
tide. 



SANITARY FISH MARKETS 

Dr. Evermann : Mr. President, there is one matter we should con- 
sider. I believe this Society could do good in starting a campaign, the 
object of which would be to force the retail dealers to handle fish in 
their stores and stalls in a more careful and sanitary way. When one 
goes into a fish house and sees the way fish are handled, he is disposed 
to make up his mind not to eat fish. 

San Francisco is particularly noticeable in this respect. I saw the 
conditions at Portland and at Seattle and I have made some little 
observation in San Francisco, and that is the way it has impressed me. 
One of the best ways to develop in the public the habit of eating fish is 
to make the fish stores and stalls clean and attractive. 

Mr. O'Malley : Would not that belong strictly to the State Food 
and Dairy Commission? Would it not be a delicate matter for us to 
step in there? 

Dr. Evermann : They should handle it, but pressure could be 
brought upon them to act by some representation from this society. 

Mr. Cobb: I think that is one of the most important subjects we 
could take up. I have gathered data on it for quite awhile. I discussed 
it to a limited extent in a paper which I prepared for the U. S. Bureau 
of Fisheries, on the Cod Fisheries of the Pacific. The great trouble in 
disposing of cod is that there are but few places with proper cold 
storage for the holding and display of cod on sale. Some dealers let it 
lie in the open and it gets dried up with the heat, while other dealers 
put it down in their cellars from whence it is brought to the light only 
when some one asks for it. 

There are only a few places in the United States where sanitary 
fish markets are maintained. Honolulu has the best fish market ; they 
liandle the fish there in a sanitary manner. I think without question it 
is the best fish market in the world. You cannot duplicate it in the 
United States proper and a campaign inaugurated by the Pacific Fish- 
eries Society, even though it only covered the Pacific Coast, would 
doubtless help. 

President : At the last session of the California Legislature, the 
Finn bill was introduced, which provided that the Fish and Game 
Commission should take over almost the entire fish industry of the 
coast, particularly that of retailing fish. The bill provided that the fish 
should be placed upon the market in a sanitary way. 

The bill found much favor throughout the State. It was surprising 
to see how the newspapers took up the fight in favor of the bill, and the 
people generally were in hearty accord with its provisions. It passed 
both Houses, but was hastily prepared, and contained numerous de- 
fects. The Governor could not sign it. The appropriation was ridicu- 
lously small and there were numerous provisions which could not be 
carried out in practice. But I have no doubt but that, at the next ses- 
sion of the Legislature, a similar bill will be introduced and something 
will come of it. 

In the meantime the Governor has asked that the commission make 
a full and detailed report on the fishing industry of the Coast, and Mr. 
Scofield and Mr. Nidever are now preparing one. In their report they 
will comment upon the unsanitary conditions of the markets. 

Dr. Edwards : I know of one fish market where the fish are all ex- 
posed in glass cases, and it is one of the most interesting sights I 
ever saw. The one I refer to is in the city of Los Angeles. The fish 
are right there in glass cases, and they take them out of the glass, and 
there is no dust or anything noticeable that could get on them. 



LIST OF MEMBERS, 1915-1916 

The President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson. 
The Governors of certain States : 

Washington, Ernest Lister. 

California, Hiram Johnson. 

Montana, S. V. Stewart. 

Oregon, James Withycombe. 

Idaho, Moses Alexander. 

Nevada, Emmet D. Boyle. 

Arizona, George W. P. Hunt. 

Alaska, J. F. A. Strong. 

Hawaii, L. E. Pinkham. , ^. , . ,Tr , • 4. 

Dr Hugh M. Smith, U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries, Washmgton, 

D. C. 

ACTIVE MEMBERS. 

Life members indicated by (*). 

Adamson, Wm., San Francisco, Cal. ^ ^., ^, • -iir u 

Allen HF, P^es. National Oyster Co., R. 3, Box 67, O lympia, Wash. 

Anderson, Clarence L., 939 19th Ave. North, Seattle, Wash. 

Armsby, J. K., Howard Street, San Francisco, Cal. 

Baldridge, Benjamin, Fish and Game Commissioii, Startup, Wash. 

Baldridge, Henry, Fish and Game Commission, Palmer, Wash. 

Baldwin, M. D., Member Game and Fish Com., Kalispell, Mont. 

Barker, Fred, Astoria, Oregon. „ , ^ ^ 

Barron, James T., 1006 Yeon Building, Portland, Oregon. 

Beach, 'W. M., SheUon, Wash. 

Berry Frank, 2509 North 28th Street, Tacoma, Wash. 

f:Sk^Kl.^F\':t^^^^^ Packing Co., 110 Market St., San Fran- 

Bothwell Wm. J., 2732 47th Street S. W., Seattle Wash. 

Bower Ward T , U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, 1217 L. C. Smith Building, 

Seattle, Wash. , , • ,,r u 

Bowman, J. B., Oyster Bay, Kamalchie Wash. 
Brady Philip J., Globe Building, Seattle, Wash. 
Brenner, Chas., Mud Bay, Olympia, Wash. . 

Brenner, J. J., care of J. J. Brenner .Oyster Co Olympia, Wash. 
Buschmann, August, L. C. Smith Building, Seattle, Wash^ 
Butts, Stephen, Fish and Game Commission, Lebam, Wash. 
Caoell Arch T P., U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Oregon City, Ore. 
QantonrRE., Maker Fish Warden, Commercial Club Building, Port- 

land, Oregon. , T,r 1 

Cobb, John N., 2323 Broadway North, Seattle, Wash. 
Conn, C. G., Elkhart, Ind. . . .^ , „ -.tt , 

Crawford, John M., Fish and Game Commission, Kendall, Wash. 
Cryderman, J. J., Blanchard, Wash. 

Culver, A. E., Dunsmuir, Cal. _ . _ .„. „ „ ... 

Cunningham, Edward, Mgr. Pacific Net & Twine Co., Pier 8, Seattle, 

Wash 
Darwin, L. H., Fish and Game Commissioner, Seattle, Wash. 
Deer, L. H., Shelton, Wash. 
Doney, A. E., Sisson, Cal. 
Doyle, Henry, Vancouver, British Columbia 
Duke Robert D., 734 Mills Building, San Francisco, Cal. 



100 Pacific Fisheries Society 

Duncanson, H. B., 1913 14th Avenue North, Seattle, Wash. 
Durney, Joseph, Fife Building, San Francisco, Cal. 
Edwards, Dr. Charles L., 1032 W. 39th Street, Los Angeles, Cal. 
Erismann, Martin C, 621 Colman Building, Seattle, Wash. 
Evermann, Dr. Barton W., Director Museum California Academy of 

Sciences, San Francisco, Cal. 
Fassett, H. C, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, St. Paul Island, Alaska. 
Fasten, Nathan, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. 
Ferguson, A. D., Fish and Game Commission, Fresno, Cal. 
Finley, William L., State Biologist, 651 East Madison Street, Port- 
land, Oregon. 
Fletcher, Emery L., Ely, Nevada. 
Forbes, Robert, Bellingham, Wash. 
Ford, Ira B., 253 Colman Building, Seattle, Wash. 
*Fortmann, Henry F., Pres. Alaska Packers' Ass'n., 85 Second Street, 

San Francisco, Cal. 
Eraser, Dr. C. McLean, Director Biological Station, Nanaimo, British 

Columbia. 
Freeman, Miller, 1321 L. C. Smith Building, Seattle, Wash. 
Fusco, Frank S., 831 Greenwich Street, San Francisco, Cal. 
Gardner, John H., U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Birdsview, Wash. 
Gill, John, 135 Third Street, Portland, Oregon. 
Gorman, T. J., 412 Colman Building, Seattle, Wash. 
Greenebaum, Alfred, 10 Main Street, San Francisco, Cal. 
Greenwood, Lyle, Department of Zoology, University of Washington, 

Seattle, Wash. 
Guaragnella, T. J., Gen. Mgr. American Fish and Oyster Co., 556 Clay 

Street, San Francisco, Cal. 
Gyger, James H., Fish and Game Commission, Elsinore, Cal. 
Hamlin, Edward H., 206 Mutual Life Building, Seattle, Wash. 
Hancock, W. K., U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Baird, Cal. 
Hanson, O. C, care of Olympia Oyster Co., Olympia, Wash. 
Hauer, J. B., Exposition Building, San Francisco, Cal. 
Heacock, Ray B., Fish and Game Commission, 521 Forum Building, 

Sacramento, Cal. 
Helser, D. R., Olympia, Wash. 
Henkel, C. P., Oregon City, Ore. 
*Henshaw, Wm. G., 762 Mills Building, San Francisco, Cal. 
Henver, Harry J., U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Clackamas, Ore. 
Hobart, Wm. B., Kalama Hatchery, Kalama, Wash. 
Hodgkins, Edward M., U. S. Fisheries Station, Baird, Cal. 
Holder, Dr. Charles F., 475 Bellfontaine Street, Pasadena, Cal. 
Hume, Charles E., 112 Market Street, San Francisco, Cal. 
Hunt, E. W., Fish and Game Commission, New Call Building, San 

Francisco, Cal. 
Hurley, Dan, Olympia, Wash. 
Hylen, I. N., Sec. Alaska Fishermen's Union, 93 Steuart Street, San 

Francisco, Cal. 
Jenkins, Dr. O. P., Stanford University, Cal. 
Johnson, Geo. C, Nahcotta, Wash. 

Johnson, R. S., U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Washington, D. C. 
Johnson, Sydney E., University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. 
Jones, E. Lester, Supt. U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, 

D. C. 
Jordan, Dr. David Starr, Stanford University, Cal. 
Joyce, Hans, 1917 9th Avenue West, Seattle, Wash. 

Ingham, Dr. , Olympia, Wash. 

Kelly, Jr., H. L., Oregon City, Ore. 



Second Annual Meeting 101 

Kincaid, Prof. Trevor, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. 

Kinney, M. J. 518 Yeon Building, Portland, Oregon. 

Kofoid, Dr. Charles A., University of California, Berkeley, Cal. 

Lambson, G. H., Fish and Game Commission, Sisson, Cal. 

Laws, Geo. O., Fish and Game Commission, Weaverville, Trinity Co., 

Cal. 
Leuenberger, John, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Clackamas, Ore. 
Lovell, Mansfield, 112 Market Street, San Francisco, Cal. 
Lowman, Will A., Anacortes, Wash. 

McFarland, Wm. H.. U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Duckabush, Wash. 
McGowan, H. S., McGowan, Wash. 
McGowan, John D., Ihvaco, Wash. 

McHugh, T. C, Gen. Mgr. Pillar Bay Packing Co., L. C. Smith Build- 
ing, Seattle, Wash. 
Madison, James, 112 Market Street, San Francisco, Cal. 
Mahone, A. H., U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Quilcene, Wash. 
Mallett, Fowler, care of American Fish and Oyster Co., 556 Clay 

Street, San Francisco, Cal. 
Manning. Thos. S., Avalon, Cal. 
Mansfield, Walter D., Merchants' Exchange Building, San Francisco, 

Cal. 
Mathewson, E. P.. 422 Hickory Street, Anaconda, Mont. 

Mayhall, L. E., Fish and Game Commission, Seattle, Wash. 

Millett, J. P., Fish and Game Commission, Seattle, Wash. 

Mitchell, Hugh C, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Birdsview, Wash. 

Morrow, J. A., Mud Bay, Olympia, Wash. 

Moser, Capt. Jeff'n F., vice-president Alaska Packers' Association, 85 
Second Street, San Francisco, Cal. 

Munly, M. G., 1006 Yeon Building, Portland, Ore. 

Newbert, F. M., Member Fish and Game Commission, 609 K. Street, 
Sacramento, Cal. 

Newman, Juda, 110 Market Street, San Francisco, Cal. 

Nidever, H. B., Fish and Game Commission, Box 86, Vallejo, Cal. 

O'Malley, Henry, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Washington, D. C. 

O'Neil, Thos., Shelton, Wash. 

Opsund, Theo., Fish and Game Commission, Portland, Ore. 

Osterud, H. L., University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. 

Ouellett, L. P., Olympia, Wash. 

Palmer, Russell 1321 L. C. Smith Building, Seattle, Wash. 

Parsons, J. E., Bellevue, Wash. 

Parsons, Theodore. Fish and Game Commission, Kalama, Wash. 

Patching. Fred, Supt. Fortmann Hatchery, Loring, Alaska. 

Persell, W. E., Arctic Club, Seattle, Wash. 

Peters, J. M.. Fish and Game Commission, Olney, Oregon. 

Peters, William A., U. S. Fisheries Station, Baird, Cal. 

Peterson, Frank B.. 67 Main Street. San Francisco, Cal. 

Pew, John W., Union Fish Co., 141 Clay Street, San Francisco, Cal. 

Phillips, L., Sisson, Cal. 

Reynolds, J. J.. 1610 L. C. Smith Building, Seattle, Wash. 

Rice, L. M., Fish and Game Commission, Satsop, Wash. 

Rich. Willis H., Stanford University, Cal. 

Richards, W. W.. 1512 Broadway, Oakland, Cal. 

Romine, Alexander P., 4730 20th Avenue N. E., Seattle, Wash. 

Russell. J. R.. U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Quinault, Wash. 

Schaeffle, Ernest, Executive Secretary Fish and Game Commission, 
New Call Building, San Francisco. Cal. 

Schmitt. Waldo L.. tJ. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C. 

Schulz, H. A., Fish and Game Commission, Kalama, Wash. 



102 Pacific Fisheries Society 

Scofield, N. B., Fish and Game Commission, Sunnyvale, Cal. 

Scott, J. H., Olympia, Wash. 

Shebley, Frank A., Brookdale, Cal. 

Shebley, W. H., Fish and Game Commission, New Call Building, San 
Francisco, Cal. 

Schultz, William, Friday Harbor, Wash. 

Siebe, John T., 430 Battery Street, San Francisco, Cal. 

Simmons, R. D., Mud Bay, Olympia, Wash. 

Sims, E. A., Port Townsend, Wash. 

Smith, Prof. E. Victor, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. 

Smith, Henry O., Bureau of Fisheries, Washington, D. C. 

Spuhn, Carl, 602 Concord Block, Portland, Ore. 

Squire, Richard, 208 W. Price St., Lodi, San Joaquin Co., Cal. 

Sykes, Prof. George F., Oregon Agricultural College, Corvallis, Ore. 

Taylor, S. K., Oyster Bay, Kamalchie, Wash. 

Thompson, William F., Stanford University, Cal. 

Timson, Wm., Sec. Alaska Packers' Ass'n, 85 Second Street, San Fran- 
cisco, Cal. 

Torrey, Prof. H. B., Reed College, Portland, Ore. 

Van Duzer, H. B., 581 Jackson Street, Portland, Ore. 

Wakefield, Lee H., L. C. Smith Building, Seattle, Wash. 

Ward, Louis, 244 California Street, San Francisco, Cal. 

Warren, Frank M., 1107 Yeon Building, Portland, Ore. 

Wentworth, Edwin, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Duckabush, Wash. 

Westerfeld, Carl, Member Fish and Game Commission, Mills Building, 
San Francisco, Cal. 

Weymouth, Prof. Frank W., Stanford University, Cal. 

Wilke, Henry, Ketchikan, Alaska. 

Winn, Dennis, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, 1217 L. C. Smith Building, 
Seattle, Wash. 

Wold, H. P. A., University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. 

Young, Jack, Fish and Game Commission, Deadwood, Ore. 



CONSTITUTION 

(As amended to date.) 



ARTICLE I. 

NAME AND OBJECT. 

The name of this Society shall be the Pacific Fisheries Society. Its 
object shall be to promote the cause of fish culture; to gather and dif- 
fuse information bearing upon its practical success, and upon all matters 
relating to the fisheries ; the uniting and encouraging of all interests of 
fish culture and the fisheries, and the treatment of all questions regard- 
ing fish, of a scientific and economic character. 

ARTICLE IL 

MEMBERS. 

Any person shall, upon a two-thirds vote and the payment of one 
dollar, become a member of this Society. In case members do not pay 
their fees, which shall be one dollar per year after the first year, and 
are delinquent for two years, they shall be notified by the treasurer, and 
if the amount due is not paid within a month thereafter, they shall be, 
without further notice, dropped from the roll of membership. Any 
person can be made an honorary or a corresponding member upon a 
two-thirds vote of the members present at any regular meeting. 

The President (by name) of the United States, and the Governors 
(by name) of the Pacific Coast States, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, and 
Montana, and Alaska and Hawaii territories shall be honorary members 
of the Society. 

Any person shall, upon a two-thirds vote and the payment of twenty- 
five dollars, become a life member of this Society, and shall thereafter 
be exempt from all annual dues. 

ARTICLE III. 

OFFICERS. 

The officers of this Society shall be a president and a vice-president, 
who shall be ineligible for election to the same office until a year after 
the expiration of their term; a vice-president, a secretary, a treasurer, 
and an executive committee of seven, which, with the officers before 
named, shall form a council and transact such business as may be neces- 
sary when the Society is not in session — four to constitute a quorum. 

ARTICLE IV. 

MEETINGS. 

The regular meeting of the Society shall be held once a year, the 
time and place being decided upon at the previous meeting, or, in 
default of such action, by the council. 

ARTICLE V. 

ORDER OF BUSINESS. 

1. Call to order by president. 

2. Roll call of members. 



104 Pacific Fisheries Society 

3. Applications for membership. 

4. Reports of officers. 

a. President. 

b. Secretary. 

c. Treasurer. 

d. Standing committees. 

5. Committees appointed by the president. 

a. Committee of five on nomination of officers for ensuing year. 

b. Committee of three on time and place of next meeting. 

c. Auditing committee of three. 

6. Reading of papers and discussions of same. 

{Note. — a. In the reading of papers preference shall be given to 

the members present. 
b. The president and secretary are empowered to arrange the 

papers of the meetings of this Society.) 

7. Miscellaneous business. 

8. Adjournment. 

ARTICLE VI. 

CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION. 

The Constitution of the Society may be amended, altered or repealed 
by a two-thirds vote of the members present at any regular meeting, 
provided at least fifteen members are present at said regular meeting. 



l.LMr?9 



Press of 

Gateway Printing Co 

Seattle. U. S. A. 



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